Iter Per Vitam
by Veritas Senpai
Summary: Life is never a simple journey. There are twists, turns and even walls that one must climb over to succeed. It is not a difficult for a pure soul to become jaded and even disheartened on this journey. The darkness is most enticing to those who don't see it as darkness.
1. Chapter 1 - Beginnings

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. RWBY is all Rooster Teeth.**

 **AN: This is my first ever fanfiction and I certainly hope you enjoy it. I'd appreciate any and all constructive criticism so that I can refine my writing :D**

Year 13X1 NRE

The town of Edge was a small but peaceful town. The kind of a town where the community is large enough to be self-sustaining but small enough that everybody knows each other. The town was shaped in a circular form with a town hall at the center and homes and shops scattered around every which way. At the north east end of the town, at the very edge, was a house. This house was made of cedar wood, had two stories, was fairly large and had back yard that extended just into the surrounding house. This peaceful looking house was where a mother was currently attempting to rouse her son out of bed for his fifth birthday.

"Jaune, Jaune, Jaune wake up please" came from the lovely voice of Cedilla Arc. She wore a green dress and had shoulder length blond hair accompanying vivid green eyes that sparkled with mirth as her son slowly started to wake up.

"mmff…wuh?" groggily responded one Jaune Arc as he continued to face the wall with his sheets over his head.

"If you don't wake up...I can call Violet in here and she can wake you up if you'd like?" Cedilla said in a teasing voice. Jaune ripped his sheets off and swung his legs over his bed while giving his mom a look of horror. The sunlight streaming into the room from a window lit up his features. He had the same shade of blond hair as his mother but had azure blue eyes that only stuck out more on his wide eyed expression.

"I'M UP, I'M UP" he yelled frantically. Whenever the oldest of his older sisters woke him up she would pull him out of bed by his legs and then carry him upside down to the bathroom while shaking him a little. He was understandably traumatized at the thought of her waking him up. He looked at the clock and saw that it was only 7 AM. He looked at his mom and was about to ask why she was waking him so early when he remembered "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY" he shouted with glee and hugged his mom as he jumped out of bed.

"Yes, yes it is and you know what that means right? You get to go watch your father hunt for the first time. First you have to go get ready though, you both need to be back by noon so we can have your birthday cake Jaune" she explained with a slightly strained smile. Although slightly nervous about sending her youngest child out in the presence of grimm her husband had kept all her other children safe when it was time for them to see what they would be fighting in order to keep the Arc legacy alive. It was only because she trusted her husband that she did not stop her son as he ran to the bathroom to get ready.

* * *

Jaune ran down the stairs and almost tripped as he hit the bottom of the stairs. He walked into the kitchen at a more sedate pace in order to avoid falling. He was greeted by the sight of his father, Declan Arc, slipping on his shoes and hefting his axe. His father was a tall and burly man with blond hair, deep brown eyes and what he affectionately referred to as his "beard of legends". The axe was a deep blue and Jaune had seen it mecha-shift into a medium sized rifle his dad used for hunting. His father, along with all his sisters were hunters and he wanted to be able to fight with them one day and be a hero!

"You ready to go champ?" his father asked him and seeing him nod they walked out of the house towards the woods. As they walked deeper and deeper into the woods Declan could see the excitement shining brilliantly off his son and was looking forward to the experience. He had done this trip with all of his daughters but was looking forward to doing this with his only son. He loved his daughters and was proud of them but he needed some male company once in a while. "Even if said male company only just turned five and couldn't share drinks with him" he grumbled under his breath.

"What was that Dad?" Jaune asked looking up curiously at his father.

"Oh nothing, nothing, certainly not anything you need to mention to your mother son" he responded hurriedly as they continued their foray now getting closer to the heart of the forest. The last thing he needed was his wife thinking he was smuggling his toddler son alcohol. He'd only mixed a little bit of his drink in Jaune's once before out of curiosity. Just once. The ensuing chaos made him realize two things. The first was that toddlers cannot have alcohol. The second was that a month of living on the couch and enduring his wife's fury was not something he would ever repeat. On that line of thought he figured now would be a good as time as any to lay down some ground rules. "Jaune I have some rules about this hunt and you have to make sure to follow them okay? I don't want you to get hurt by accident and have your mother be mad at m-us" he slowly said.

"Sure Dad, what are they?" he asked with same enthusiasm even as he paled at the thought of his mom being furious.

"Well the thing is I'm going to be putting you up in a tree nearby so the beowulf's won't be able to get to you easily. The first rule is you keep your butt on that tree. You don't run or try and help me if I seem like I'm in trouble. I'm your dad and I can handle a few beowulf's easy enough. The other thing is to not make noise. I don't want them noticing you and making this more of a hassle than it has to be got it?" His son nodded furiously in agreement not wanting to disappoint his dad. "Good and we seem to be far enough along so let's get you up there".

"Yeah, yeah let's go!" Jaune exclaimed excitedly while holding his arms out towards his father. He picked up his son in his arms and searched around for a tree. He found one with a pair of sturdy looking branches and climbed up and placed him ten feet up. He climbed down the tree, stretched his muscles and proceeded to open his mouth to yell.

"COME GET IT YA BASTARDS" he hollered into the darkness of the forest. He then leaned back against a tree adjacent to the one his son was on and held his axe loosely in one hand. He closed his eyes and waited.

* * *

It only took fifteen minutes for Jaune to regret coming on this trip with his father. After his father had shouted it took almost no time for a beowulf to appear. He'd heard about them through his stories seeing one in person was terrifying. They were lupine in form and far larger than the average human with black fur covering dense muscles. These beasts had white bone armor covering their heads which extended slightly onto their back. They had additional bony spikes extending from their forelegs, shoulders and their hands in the form of menacing claws. The most noticeable trait to Jaune however was their glowing red eyes that gleamed with bloodthirst and malevolence. The sight of one facing his father nearly made him scream out but he kept quiet only because of the trust he had in his father.

That's when it happened.

The beowulf charged at his father and before it got the chance to even swing his father simply chucked his axe and impaled it into its skull. He whistled softly as he walked over to the body as it started to evaporate, grabbed the handle with one hand and simply pulled it out. Jaune couldn't believe it. He sat there with his mouth agape at the casualty with which his father took down the Grimm. His father looked over at him and winked to which he simply continued staring.

"Careful son you might catch some rapier wasps if you keep your mouth open like that" his father said as he chuckled at his son's expression. He turned back around as he heard a crunch. Three sets of gleaming red eyes greeted him and he smiled as he decided to continue showing off for his son.

"Wow Dad has some moves" Jaune muttered to himself as he saw his father proceed to mow through grimm after grimm. They continued to stream in from the woods in batches of three or four and his gather would just cut them down with casual but precise strikes. He would cleave one in half, chop of the head of another and shoot whichever ones were further off by mecha-shifting his axe into its gun form.

Unbeknownst to Jaune or his father one beowulf separated himself from the packs and was circling around to try a stealthier approach. This beowulf had slight moss and scratches on its armor. It had been around longer than its brethren and knew that direct opposition was not always the best option. It kept its body low as it skulked through brush as the shadows of the trees helped it blend into its surroundings. Its eyes were focusing on the clash of its brethren and saw one of its brethren almost land a hit on the man.

Jaune let out a gasp and had to steady himself when he saw a beowulf almost claw his dad's chest. When his dad dodged by stepping back and dispatched the beowulf he gave a soft but audible sigh of relief.

The beowulf's keen ears picked up on the one utterance of Jaune and spotted him high up in the tree. Bloodlust ensnared its senses at the sight of defenseless prey and it changed the prey it desired. It built up to a run and leaped into the air slamming the tree with its body. It snarled as it barely missed nipping the boy. Its effort was not in vain however as the child, overcome with terror, lost his balance and the impact of the collision rocked him off the tree.

He was dead

That was the only thought Jaune even as his voice let out a scream. He could hear his father curse in the background as he tried to dispatch another Beowulf in order to get to him.

His head hit the ground

He felt his back land on the ground and managed to hear a crack from somewhere through the ringing in his ears. He could have sworn someone yelled his name but he was too dazed to tell and there was something trickling down his head into his ears. He was able to make out two glowing red eyes before a fur covered appendage raised itself into his view.

' _I don't want to die'_ the thought briefly passed through his mind

His world exploded in pain before his vision went black.


	2. Chapter 2 - Decision

**AN: So this took a bit longer than I wanted to get out. Was planning on weekly but spent a couple days editing it up so sorry about it being late :D Again I would appreciate any reviews, reactions or any constructive criticism whatsoever! :D**

 **Chapter 2 - Decision**

Year 13X3 NRE

Jaune arc lay in his back yard breathing heavily. He debated on whether or not if it was worth the effort to get up and try and convince his parents to train him again. After the accident two years ago his parents had handled him as if he was going to break down any second. They told him that they would train him when he was older and recovered.

 _Flashback start_

 _Jaune awoke to the sound of his mother crying. He opened his eyes to see that he was back in his bed at home. His chest was sore enough that he didn't think he could get up painlessly. Cedilla was seated in a chair alongside_ _his bed with her face in her hands. Cedilla's normally beautiful hair was disheveled and even without seeing his mother's face he could imagine the sorrow on her face._

 _"Mom? Why are you crying?" he asked in confusion. His mother's head shot up and she quickly but gently wrapped her hands around him. She kissed his forehead and repeatedly told him that he would be okay and that he was safe. "Safe? Mom what happened?" he couldn't understand what she was talking about but he knew it couldn't be good to drive her to this state._

 _"Jaune...don't you remember what happened?" a gruff voice asked from the far corner of his room. He tilted his head up slightly and saw his father in the corner of the room. His father had a serious expression and had a significant amount of blood on his shirt._

 _"Dad what happened are you okay? Did you get hurt on a mission?" Jaune immediately blurted out. That looked like a lot of blood and for something to hurt his dad that much must have been dangerous._

 _"Son. I want you to think about what you remember last for me okay?" the voice in which Declan said this confused Jaune. His father sounded concerned and wary. The fact that he was slowly but deliberately walking towards his bed didn't escape him. It was as if his dad was worried he would startle him. He would remember what he could for his dad though._

 _"Well I turned five and you brought me hunting with you. You were awesome you killed lots and lots of beowulf's and then-" Jaune's recollection ended abruptly. His eyes widened in terror and took on a haunted look, his skin paled and he started to shake. His eyes shakily settled on the blood on his father's shirt as he came to a realization._ _  
_  
'That's my blood'  
 _  
_ _Jaune started to hyperventilate and tears started to flow freely as he let out choked sobs. Cedilla climbed into his bed and held him close. His mother murmured words of comfort as she stroked his head. His father had left the room to change his shirt and get his only son's blood off his body._

 _End flashback_

Admittedly breaking into a panic attack was plenty of cause for concern but he got over it! Yeah it took almost three months before he stopped freaking out at the sight of anything red and almost a year before he was able to see blood again but he did it, all by himself too! He wanted to get stronger. He wanted to be strong enough that he would never be hurt like that again. So one day he decided to start trying to get himself used to the sight of blood.

Jaune's method of choice? By killing small animals on his way to and back from school. It took him awhile to get the will to even chase them down. It took him even longer to finally kill one. After the first bird he killed though it got easier to kill more and more until he no longer felt guilty about it.

When he'd told his parents about it, he thought it was a perfectly good way to fix his issues. Somehow it only convinced them that he still wasn't okay though. At their horrified looks and his mother's pleas he promised he would stop.

Okay maybe he'd changed a bit but he **felt** fine so his parents should train him.

"Well, I guess I'll just shower and try again" he said as he got up and stretched his muscles and walked back into his home. He paused to admire the sun as it broke the horizon and the rosy rays it started to cast over his yard. This sight was what brought Jaune to start exercising in the mornings before school. The appearance of what was theorized to be a gigantic ball of fire bringing beauty to everything it touched was something that gave him a strange sort of inner peace. Snapping out of his trance he walked back into the house and went to shower.

* * *

This was a problem of astronomical proportions.

His lucky shirt was missing. Today was the day he wanted to wear his x-ray and vav t-shirt since he was going to try even harder to get his dad to approve his training. It was a black shirt with the two characters back to back as they looked outward and he thought it was the coolest. With a sigh he'd just ask his mom if she knew where it was. Disregarding the fact that he was running down to breakfast in only shorts Jaune ran into the kitchen and saw his mom already making pancakes.

The kitchen was a large square shaped room. Wooden shelves covered three sides of the walls with an oven and stove in the middle. There were windows on the sides of the room which stretched to above the stove which let sunlight in and brighten up the room as it struck the wooden countertops. There was a large dining table in the middle of the kitchen with eight chairs surrounding it.

"Are those blueberry pancakes? Wait no. Mom have you seen my x-ray and vav t-shirt? I can't find it and I really want it today!" Jaune exclaimed as he ran up and hugged his mom. Cedilla smiled and turned around to jokingly admonish him for bumping her legs while cooking only to have her smile to wither and die along with her words. On her precious little boy's chest was a sizeable jagged scar that ran from the top left side of his shoulder diagonally down to the bottom right side of his torso. Her husband had tackled the beowulf outright and threw off its balance which is why Jaune had only lost a lot of blood and been given a sizeable scar. If Declan had been a second later it would have gored her son through all his internal organs. She mentally shuddered at the thought and dropped to her knees and hugged her son tightly.

"Your t-shirt was dirty so I gave it a wash sweetie. It's in the dry clothing basket out on the porch. Why do you want it so badly today?" she asked curiously. She knew he called it his "lucky shirt" and she wondered what he wanted the luck for.

"It's a surprise mom I can't tell you" he cheekily responded before running off to grab his shirt.

"That boy…" Cedilla trailed off with a smile on her face as he she watched Jaune run out of the kitchen. Her eyes gleamed with amusement as she saw him bump into her husband who patted his head before letting him continue to run outside. She turned back to making pancakes as her husband took a seat at the dining table. She continued to make her son's favorite blueberry pancakes when she heard Declan sigh. Cedilla turned around and asked "Honey, what's wrong?"

"…I'm thinking of telling Jaune about my decision today" her husband replied.

"What? Why? And why today?" she questioned. Cedilla knew what he was talking about and, while ultimately good for her son, she knew that Jaune would be heartbroken.

Declan took a large breath before deciding to explain "You know as well as I do Cedilla. I've turned him down from training since he asked for almost a year and a half now. Instead of giving up that stubborn boy just started training harder on his own! He's more fit than even kids three years older than him now! I think it's time we just finally break the news to him today…especially since he's apparently looking for his lucky shirt"

"What about my lucky shirt?" Jaune asked as he walked back into the kitchen. He'd only heard the last two words but was immediately interested in whatever his dad was talking about.

"I was just telling your mom how I used to have a lucky shirt like you! Mine was…uh green and blue though" he casually responded. Seeing his son giving him a disbelieving stare he instead asked "so son, why are you wearing your lucky shirt today?"

"Well…I…" Jaune struggled to put the words together and he started to doubt himself. His parents had already said no plenty of times, why would they change now? Didn't they want him to be a hero like his dad? Didn't they want him to be strong?

"Sweetie?" Cedilla prompted seeing him trail off. She kneeled down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder to support him.

"I-I want to be a hero…I want to be strong. I don't ever want to be weak again against anything like what happened ever again!" Jaune responded slowly gaining confidence. He turned slightly and looked his dad in the eyes and asked "Dad will you please train me now?"

Declan looked back at his son, saw his determination, his will to succeed and the courage he had.

"Don't worry Jaune you won't ever be in that situation again..." Jaune's eyes lit up and a smile started to creep across his face. "…because as of right now I swear never to train you to become a hunter so that you can stay safe".

The silence that met the statement was thick enough to drown an ursa.

Jaune looked at his father with incomprehension. That incomprehension shifted to despair as he felt betrayed. The despair did not last though as it shifted into a burning rage. He shrugged off his moms hand and walked up to his dad while maintaining his most potent glare.

Through gritted teeth he asked "Why? What is wrong with me? Am I a failure? Did you not want me? All seven of my sisters, your daughters, got to be hunters. 't.I." Jaune was visibly restraining himself from screaming at his father even as a tear escaped his left eye and his lips started to quiver.

"Son…" Declan started before pausing to gather the correct words. "It's because your sisters are hunters that you don't need to be one. Your mother and I already worry enough about them as it is. You've already nearly died once. I won't allow you to be put in that sort of a position again."

"I've nearly died once?" Jaune whispered. His indignation and rage finally overcame him as he screamed "AND WHO'S FAULT WAS THAT YOU FUCKING FAILURE OF A HERO?!"

"JAUNE!" his mom yelled in horror at both his words and the effect it had on her husband. Through his stern visage she could see the guilt pooling behind his eyes. To this day Declan had not forgiven himself for nearly allowing their son to die.

"It was mine." Declan replied coldly. There was a small subtle anger there that caught Jaune by surprise. "That's why I'm taking responsibility. As long as I have a say in it you won't be allowed to become a hunter and that's my decision."

It was the finality with which he said it that made it finally sink into Jaune. His father would never train him. He glanced at his mom to see her give him a weak and strained smile. She agreed with his father. As the tears started to seep out he decided enough was enough. He bolted from the kitchen up the stairs and into his room. He locked the door and allowed himself to collapse to the ground as he cried for his lost dreams.

* * *

Jaune woke up sore and his eyes felt crusty. He was confused as to why he was on his bedroom floor until her recalled his talk with his parents. His fury threatened to come back up before he calmed himself down. He realized it was dark in his room and wondered what time it was. A glance at the clock near his bed read as two-thirty-five in the morning.

"I slept through the whole day?!" Jaune near yelled before quieting his exclamation. Waking his parents up with more yelling at this hour would only get him in bigger trouble. He grimaced at remembering that he swore at his dad.

He was _so_ getting grounded.

Jaune was wide awake however so he thought about what to do. His parents would not train him to be a hunter. This meant he couldn't enter battle school at a young age which is what everyone who wanted to be a hunter did. He could try to get into signal but it was far away and there was no way for him to sneak out and back in after class every day. It would also cost a lot to keep traveling back and forth.

Jaune's mind ground to a halt.

' _Whoever said I had to come back'_ he thought absently.

It was a dangerous thought. He knew that life was never easy for those who were along. He was also only seven years old. Sure he was more fit and faster than some of the big kids but he couldn't be an adult. He'd never even been in a fight! He'd only camped with his dad a couple times and even then it was in his backyard. His sisters were strong but he wasn't nearly as strong as them. He also…

"Where am I going with this?" Jaune wondered aloud. It took him several minutes to realize one thing. He was scared. He was scared and making excuses to not go. Didn't he want to be strong? Didn't he want to be a hero?

' _Okay maybe not the hero thing if that means I'm just going to end up like dad'_ he thought bitterly.

He made his decision. Jaune looked around and found his backpack. He packed two sets of clothes, a map, a compass and a small hunting knife his dad gave him on his fifth birthday…ironically after his panic attack.

Jaune put on a pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a black hooded sweatshirt in case it was cold outside. He slowly opened his door to avoid making noise and slid out of his room. He crept along the walls, down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Upon entering the kitchen he came to a realization. It was dark as all hell.

He'd need to be careful with this in order to not crash into anything. The last thing he needed was his parents coming down to a loud noise.

Jaune opened the shelf next to the stove and took out his water bottle and some protein bars. He proceeded crammed as many of the bars into his backpack as he could and filled his water bottle to the brim. Deciding against carrying it, Jaune put the bottle into a side pocket of his backpack. Turning to leave to leave he saw a plate with pancakes on the table. There was a paper next to it. Jaune walked over to the table and saw that the paper was a note. He picked it up and began to read.

 _Dear Jaune, I wrote this in case we were sleeping when you decided to come downstairs again. I know you are upset with your father and me. I kept these pancakes here because when I unlocked your room I saw you sleeping and knew you would be hungry when you woke up. Please don't be upset at us. We only want what's best for you and to see you happy and safe. Let's talk about everything later son. I love you Jaune my baby boy._

Jaune read it through a second time and then a third.

"I'm sorry mom" he said while walking towards the backdoor and tightly clutching the letter. "What I want to make me happy is not what you want to make me happy…I'm a bad son. So I'll be leaving." He turned around and walked out of the kitchen. Jaune saw that it was raining heavily outside so he brought up his hood and took his first step out of the house.

It was dark outside; the rain was coming down violently and muddying the ground.

It wasn't too late to turn back. He was still holding onto the letter. He could go back inside, unpack and continue trying to get his parents to train him.

He took his second step outside of the house. He took his third step. He let go of the letter and began to run. He began to run from what he knew into the unknown.

From Jaune's perspective? He ran to freedom.

As Jaune ran his mother's letter landed on the ground outside his home's front door. It began to be covered by mud as the rain splattered the wet earth into the air. The letter began to crumple and contort as it became increasingly damp.

Jaune Arc had made his decision to never turn back.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Fall

**AN: I legitimately did not expect to pump this out as fast as I did. I suppose a weekend of no video games frees up significantly more time for me to be productive.**

 **Azure Saiyan: I thought having Jaune lash out a bit was a good choice too. In the show we seem him as a bit of a pansy early on but he develops well. I figured with the trauma happening in early childhood it allows for Jaune to develop in different manner. Thanks for the compliment! :D**

 **Without further ado I hope you all enjoy chapter three!**

 **Chapter 3 – The Fall**

Year 13X3 NRE

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck" Jaune rapidly said under his breath as he ran through the woods at night. He hurtled over tree roots as he weaved in between trees. There was no subtlety in his run as dirt was kicked into the air behind him with every step. Turning his head the side to look behind him Jaune's expression was horrified.

In the darkness all that was visible were two glowing red eyes filled with malevolence which stared back as they continued to get closer.

It had started off as such a nice day too.

* * *

The sun was shining, the birds were singing and all was right on the island of patch. The island was largely covered in forests with towns dotting the coastline and expanding through the island. Patch was famous for being a relatively peaceful area to live as long as one didn't venture to deep into the forests.

On the southern end of the island in one of the port towns a young boy was walking off a boat into the docks. This boy was the runaway named Jaune Arc. He had his black hood up covering his face from view as he attempted to walk as casually as possible to avoid sticking out.

" _How did they get those dumb posters up so early anyways?"_ he mused. Jaune had significantly underestimated how well known his parents and sisters were. Within the first day he had seen posters with his face, name and height on them. There wasn't a single town that he'd passed in his week of traveling that didn't have those posters plastered somewhere. Due to this annoying circumstance wearing his hood up at all times become a frightful necessity, regardless of how sketchy he felt wearing it this way. Despite the difficulties of surviving and traveling on his own for a week Jaune Arc had done what he had set out to do. He had made it to Patch, the island where Signal Academy was located.

Now there was just one question he needed to find the answer to. Where WAS Signal exactly?

"I could ask for help, or maybe get a map?" he deliberated to himself as he proceeded to walk into the town. He glanced around and looked at the town he was in. The architecture of the buildings reminded him a lot of home except that everything was more…technologically advanced. He saw different color lights on all sorts of doors and windows, he saw far more cars on the road than he did when back home and everything was far cleaner. Not that his home town wasn't clean but some of the roads were definitely more dirt than pavement whereas everything here was paved perfectly with sidewalks framing every street. Jaune closed his eyes as he continued to walk forward as he took in the smells and sounds of the street.

He felt brief but solid contact against his torso, the sensation of falling backwards and all of a sudden he was looking up at the sky.

"Easy there…bud, watch where you're going" a scratchy voice said.

Jaune tilted his head up to look at who was speaking. The man was fairly tall had slicked back messy black hair with grey streaks. He had red eyes that seemed glazed over and stubble all along his chin. The man was wearing a grey shirt, black pants alongside an odd red and tattered cloak.

He was also visibly drunk. At least that what his dad looked like after he came home drinking with his friends.

"Are you drunk?" Jaune couldn't help but blurt. He instantly regretted it since the man squinted at him and appeared to ponder the question.

"So it would seem" he responded.

"…" Jaune wasn't sure what to say in response to an admission of blatant public drunkenness. "I…think I'll just be on my way…away from here. Have a nice day mister!" He turned around and started to rapidly walk in the other direction.

He crashed into yet ANOTHER body and fell back on the ground.

"Ouch, what do you think you're doing?" a female voice yelled.

Jaune took a second to look up at the girl who was now straddling his waist. The first thing he noticed was a long mane of blonde hair. She had a fair complexion and vibrant lilac eyes. The sun behind her made it seem as if she was glowing. She also was glaring rather intensely at him.

"Are you an angel?" As soon as the words left his lips he couldn't help but mentally berate himself. During one of his falls he must have hit his head at some point to think that was a good choice of response to an angry woman.

"pfft…hahahaha" The man behind him had started laughing for some reason. "Yang an angel? Oh that's precious kid. I like you already!" the man behind him commented through his bemusement.

"Shut up uncle Qrow!" the girl who was apparently named Yang shot back. She got off of him and ran up her uncle and tried to punch him in the sternum only to be put in a headlock and receive what appeared to be a very, very painful noogie.

"Hey kid I want to ask you something" Qrow said while maintaining his hold on the girl. "You seemed just a little bit lost walking around with your eyes closed earlier. Need help finding a place?"

"Umm.." Jaune started uncertainly. He was surprised by the, apparently not drunk man's, offer but wasn't one to not take up help when he needed it. "Yeah I'm trying to find my way to signal academy. Do you know where it is?"

"Signal? Why would a kid like you be looking for signal?" the man asked now adopting a more serious demeanor.

"It's a good battle school right? That means it's somewhere I can get stronger" Jaune responded confidently.

' _Oh so THAT's why this kid is out here on his own'_ Qrow thought to himself. He decided that he didn't need to be delicate about this. "Kid you seem way too young to get into Signal. You're the same age as Yang here. Try again in a couple years, until then just head back to those parents you ran away from."

Jaune was instantly on guard. This man knew he was a runaway which explained why he knew his age. Those obnoxious posters must have made it all the way here already. He had to run; he had to get away before-

"YOU RAN AWAY FROM HOME?" the girl shouted.

Both Jaune and Qrow winced as other people on the street turned their heads to witness the spectacle.

Damn rubberneckers.

"Y-YES HE DID OH NIECE OF MINE! THAT'S WHY WE'RE GOING HOME WITH HIM NOW. RIGHT SON?" Qrow had to force his voice to match Yang's volume which, considering she was a seven year old girl with an apparently large set of healthy lungs, proved to be quite the challenge. He looked at Jaune with an expression that seemed to scream 'please agree with me or this will make all our lives more difficult'.

"YEAH SURE DAD LETS GO HOME TOGETHER, AS FAMILY!" he responded in a cheery tone. He made sure to fake a bright gleaming smile that could have blinded anyone with sensitive eyes.

Jaune died on the inside.

* * *

Yang was trying to figure out what had happened. First her uncle left her in a bookstore of all places by herself while he went to get a drink. Next she got bored and decided to find her uncle. After that she ran into some blonde kid who was looking to get into signal and ran away from home. Then her uncle called him his son, he called her uncle dad and now they were all sitting at a small café by the docks eating sandwiches.

Oh she almost forgot. Her uncle and the kid had been arguing about whether he should go home or if he should try to get into signal anyways for almost two hours now.

"I'm telling you kid you're too damn young. I'm an actual teacher at Signal and I'm telling you can't do it. Yes Signal has no requirements to get in but you'll just fail out at your age. That's not even your biggest problem either. You're a runaway kid. You have no money or anywhere to stay. Do you really think you have what it takes to survive? You'll die just trying to even survive let alone have time to worry about academic performance."

Jaune gritted his teeth as he struggled not to lash out in anger. All that would do is prove this man's point about him being too young. This had to be handled with maturity, like an adult. He closed his eyes, counted to ten and breathed out. When he opened his eyes they were filled with nothing but grim determination.

"You don't get to say whether I can try or not. I will find my way to signal and I will make it in. I don't care how hard it is but I will get stronger" Jaune's voice was filled with conviction as he spoke.

There was a silence at the table for a minute as Jaune and Qrow shared potent glares. Qrow noticed the haunted look in his eyes behind his determination. Those eyes did not belong on a child so young. This kid was messed up in more ways than he was aware. Qrow closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

' _Declan is going to kill me for this if he ever finds out about this…if Cedilla doesn't get to me first'_ Qrow thought morbidly and shuddered. He gathered himself and looked Jaune in the eyes. "Signal is on the other side of Patch. If you stick to traveling along the coast it should take you two weeks to get there. If you can get there I'll let you stay with me while you attend Signal…before you fail out that is"

Jaune was stupefied. He wasn't the only one.

"Uncle Qrow?!" Yang looked at her uncle in shock. "Why are you helping him? His parents must be worried! What if Ruby or I ever ran?"

Qrow winced briefly before deciding he should explain himself. "Yang we send this kid back home and I guarantee you he'll be back in a week or two. I'm not helping him. This is my way of showing him that he can't do it and he needs to go home."

"If I make it there…if I get to Signal will you keep actually your promise?" Jaune asked. He was giving Qrow an incredulous look as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Sure will kid. I know for a fact though there is no way you'll last those two weeks before turning yourself in to go home" Qrow got up and pulled a piece of parchment and a pen from a pocket in his pants. He placed it down on the table and scribbled on it before handing it over to Jaune.

"This is...a map?' Jaune asked. He gave it a once over to look at it in detail. The map he had in his backpack was a general map of Remnant. Qrow had given a far more detailed map that covered solely the island of Patch. On the map Qrow had marked out the path along the coast he should take as well as Signal's location. Now that he actually looked at the projected route he realized he was in for a horrifically long walk.

"I can't let a kid go wandering a whole damn island without some help after all. Anyways I gotta head back to Signal myself to teach some brats." Qrow got up and started to walk towards the door when he realized his niece wasn't following behind him.

Yang was standing but hadn't moved from her seat at the table. She looked at the boy her age in confusion. He wanted to get stronger so much that he ran away from home. He seemed brave to her but also really stupid and she didn't want to just leave him. There must have been some way she could help him.

She knew just what to do.

Yang walked over to the boy who seemed to get more and more wary at her approaching him. She reached out with both her hands and gave him a hug.

"This is for good luck okay?" she said to the boy who was growing increasingly uncomfortable.

Jaune attempted to respond coherently.

"I, uh, um okay? Thanks?"

Keyword being attempted

Yang let him go with a small blush and ran out the door past her uncle who was staring stunned as his niece passed him. He shook off his surprise and decided to amend his earlier offer.

"Kid I take back what I said. If you make it to Signal I will personally train you so you don't fail. If I did otherwise I don't think Yang would forgive me. I still don't think you'll make the whole two weeks but I'll let you try at least." Qrow left with those words leaving Jaune alone at the table with his thoughts.

* * *

He, Jaune Arc, had just been offered personal training by a teacher of Signal Academy a mere week after running away from home.

All he could think about however, was the girl who hugged him.

Although a rather jaded individual for his age Jaune Arc was still a child who knew very little about females. Sure he had seven sisters but they didn't really count. The only thing he really knew was that they smelled nice, were a LOT more sensitive for reasons beyond his comprehension and that girls didn't actually have what his friends called 'cooties'.

After all Jaune lived with eight girls sometimes; if they actually had cooties he'd be dead already.

"Why did she hug me though, how is that supposed to give me good luck?" he muttered to himself. Deciding to ponder it later and focus on something that actually mattered Jaune turned back to the map and the route Qrow outlined for him. It really was one hell of a walk. He would have to hug the coastline around half the island to get there. There had to be another way of getting to Signal that was either easier or faster.

What methods of transport could he use? Traveling on a bullhead by air would be the fastest but he had no doubt that someone would recognize him, or at least question why a kid was traveling on his own. He couldn't go on a boat again either. It had been pure luck that the posters with his face on them hadn't been paid attention to on his first day. He wouldn't risk faster travel for being sent back.

Jaune looked back at the map to try and find any other way of getting to Signal without going around the island. He scrutinized the map and looked for any towns nearby when he noticed something. There was a small spattering of towns that went _through_ the island to the other side. They were close enough that it would be a day's walk between towns and he'd make it to Signal in a week.

There was a slight downside to this plan. The road between towns was surrounded by forest. He knew what this risk meant.

Grimm.

"It would be dangerous…but only if I travel by night. If I go by day I should be okay…" Jaune said to himself.

He didn't think he'd be able to make the two week trip. He'd run out of food and money just after the first week of traveling towards Signal. This other method would be far more dangerous. If he played it safe however he could do it. He'd get to Signal and Qrow would have to train him. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice one of the café employees approaching him.

"Um kid? You've spent like an hour sitting there after your dad left. I think you should go home" the employee sounded nervous and hesitant. He looked more than a little uncomfortable.

It must have been odd to have to try and kick a seven year old out of a restaurant.

"Oh sorry about that, yeah I'll go home and find my dad. Thanks for the food mister!" Jaune replied with a beaming smile that caught the employee off guard. Jaune packed up and ran out of the restaurant and down the street.

" _What a nice kid_ " the employee thought. He then realized that neither the kid nor his father paid for the food after spending almost three hours collectively in the café. He sighed in resignation. His manager was going to be annoyed with him.

After turning a corner Jaune grinned to himself. After realizing Qrow had left him the bill he'd done his best innocent child impression and gotten out of paying. This also meant that next time Qrow went to eat at the café he'd be asked about why he didn't pay for his son. It was his small bit of payback to the man for doubting him.

Jaune continued to explore the town before looking up at the sun to try and figure out the time. He guessed it was around three in the afternoon. He then proceeded to panic.

" _If it's three then that means I've only got a few hours to get to the next town before it gets dark_ " he thought furiously to himself. He refused to sleep on the streets or somewhere in town. Not only was that about as safe as going into the forest at night but it also increased the chances of being recognized. If he was easily recognized by Qrow after running into him no doubt others in this town would be able to soon enough. He needed to get out of town. Now.

Jaune followed the map Qrow gave him of Patch to where the road began and he grimaced when he saw a long road surrounded by flat land for about one-hundred meters. After that the flat land very quickly gave way to a forest. He looked back at the sun and decided he'd have to jog,

"This is going to suck so much" he griped even as he started up his jog into the forest.

* * *

This forest wasn't too bad at the beginning. If anything Jaune found it peaceful. It was quiet but when the sun was still overhead and its rays were peeking through the foliage it was…comfortable. He'd always found nature and the sun's warmth a source of comfort.

It was as the sun got lower that Jaune had started to feel uncomfortable. He had nothing against the dark but he'd gotten the feeling he was being watched. He kept his jog going however since he really needed to get to the next town. It was during a small five minute break he'd taken to rest and drink when it had happened.

In front of him a beowulf had appeared. This beowulf was different than the ones he'd seen before. It was far larger and had bone-white armor covering more of its body. The beast seemed to exude a palpable aura of danger and malevolence that other beowulfs could not hope to match. It had eyed him with hunger but it kept its approach slow. It was as if the beowulf knew that he was easy prey and it was confident that he couldn't get away.

" _This…is an alpha…"_ Jaune thought horrified. This was the kind of grimm that were left up to hunters to kill. Jaune knew he'd have to surprise it to survive so he'd done something he'd considered smart at the time.

He'd shined his flashlight into its eyes to surprise and briefly blind it, thrown said flashlight at its eyes and then run into the woods.

Unfortunately he hadn't managed to surprise it for very long. This was why he was now lamenting his ruined day while running through the woods with no idea where he was going while an alpha beowulf chasing him.

Jaune winced as he heard the alpha roar in rage. The only reason it hadn't caught him yet was because he was small and light enough to take quick turns while the damned monster had to skid and slow down briefly.

"There has to be something I can do to not die right now to this stupid mutt" Jaune grumbled to himself while running.

He heard the alpha roar louder behind him. Apparently it didn't appreciate his word choice.

He mentally reviewed what he could use to deal with it. All he had on him was his hunting knife and some supplies he had in his backpack. He certainly wasn't going to cut through beowulf armor with his knife, even if it was hunter-grade, and he couldn't choke it to death with the food in his backpack…

" _Actually this could work"_ he thought. It was a crazy idea. It was borderline suicidal but he couldn't bring himself to care. Jaune was tired, sweaty, and far too frustrated to bother. That he would die if this thing caught up to him anyways was a very strong motivator. As he ran Jaune scanned his surroundings for a thick tree. After a brief search he noticed a large enough tree that could help him out.

He briefly slowed down his speed to let the monster gain ground and ran in a straight line. Jaune could hear the beowulf getting closer and closer and he sped up and jumped at the tree and planted both his legs on it as he turned around. He slipped his backpack into his left hand and his knife into his right.

The beowulf was within five feet of Jaune. It jumped at him with jaws open and claws outstretched, ready to finally take down its prey.

Jaune did something it never expected. He launched himself, off the tree, _towards_ the beowulf. He could feel his blood rushing and his heartbeat seemed so loud that thought he could hear it. His left arm swung his open backpack onto the beowulf's mouth and covered it in its entirety. Jaune used the drag to swing himself further in and used all his strength to shove his knife underneath the beast's jaw just outside of its armor. Even after the initial stab Jaune continued to push further and further until he was elbow deep into the monster's skull. He felt his back scratched by the alpha as it attempted to stop its death.

He pulled his arm out and jumped away from the alpha. He watched as it collapsed to the ground and started to evaporate into black smoke. Jaune's legs finally gave out and he kneeled on the ground. His breaths were heavy and he started to feel the exhaustion seeping in as the adrenaline wore off. Jaune crawled backwards and propped himself up against the tree. He continued to watch as the beowulf evaporated until nothing was left but his backpack.

Jaune grinned. He'd killed a grimm. There was luck involved and he had the element of surprise on his side. He would probably never be able to do that again.

Even so. He'd killed a grimm. An alpha beowulf at that. He closed his eyes as he let out tears of joy. He searched for a word to describe what he was feeling. He settled on pride. It was pride that his efforts had paid off. If he wasn't in the shape he was now, both mentally and physically, he would have died out on that road. The training he put himself through had served him well.

Jaune's ears picked up a rustling sound and his head shot up. He saw three beowulfs skulk out of the nearby trees. Their crimson eyes gleamed with hunger and rage.

" _I can't win this"_ Jaune thought with horror. He was barely maintaining consciousness as it was and he was so tired.

With a resigned sigh Jaune lifted himself to his feet and staggered to maintain his balance. Both his arms hung limp but he clutched the knife in his right hand hard enough to draw blood. If he was going to die, it was not going to be quietly to these stupid animals.

"COME AND GET IT IF YOU WANT ME SO BADLY" he shouted and raised the knife.

The grimm charged as one and Jaune braced himself for the struggle.

There was a sound of something whistling through the air before three arrows found themselves embedded inside the beowulf's heads. Each of the grimm fell dead on the spot.

Jaune just stared flabbergasted. He was trying to process what had just happened and failing miserably.

"I saw you kill that alpha. It was…impressive" the words came from a female voice behind him.

Jaune turned around and noticed a figure walking out from the shadows. The woman had ebony hair down to the bottom of her neck with some of it partially covering her left eye. She red dress with a pair crisscrossing red straps that wrapper around her neck. In her arms was a bow that looked as if it could separate into two short swords. Across the woman's back there were arrows tied to the back of a black belt she wore.

She also had very bright Amber eyes.

This woman was beautiful.

"If you saw me fighting…why didn't you help out?" Jaune questioned cautiously but respectfully. It wouldn't do to piss of the woman who apparently only needed arrows to pierce through grimm armor.

"I would have stepped in if I deemed it necessary. If anyone should be asking questions it's me. Just what is a child doing out this deep into the woods by himself?" She responded while walking closer to him.

"…" Jaune briefly pondered running before deciding he wouldn't get away. He didn't know why but he just felt he couldn't run or even lie to the woman before him. Jaune let out a sigh before he sat down. He decided it would be better to just say the truth, especially as this woman just saved his life. "I ran away from home to try and get into Signal Academy".

"Signal Academy?" A single eyebrow rose in surprise. "Why is someone as young as you trying to get in so early?"

"I was hurt in the past because I was weak…I want to be stronger so I'm trying to get into signal" he responded tiredly. He'd faced two near death situations today. If this lady would just help into the nearest town he'd find someplace to sleep for a bit first thing and then pass out from exhaustion.

"Hmmm…I've always found Signal's education…lacking" she responded while giving him a shrewd look. "What if I could offer you another way to get stronger? It would be faster, you would learn more and most importantly…you'd find out more about this big wide world we live in".

Jaune's interest was piqued. He wouldn't mind getting stronger faster if it was an option. He wouldn't learn under Qrow sure but a couple hours of talking did not make for a strong connection.

"…how?" he finally asked.

"Simple. You come with me. I'll teach you everything you _want_ and more importantly, everything you _need_ " the woman explained.

There was a pause as Jaune considered what she said before deciding to ask for details.

"I have two questions." he said "Why are you offering this to me and what's the catch?"

"I like that you didn't just accept. I'm offering because I've never seen a child kill an alpha, even if luck played a part. I think you have the potential to be something great, potential which would be wasted on mediocrity at Signal" she explained. "As for the catch, the sole condition to my offer is that you obey me. Everything I ask you to do will help you even if you disagree at first."

"…Just out of curiosity…what will happen if I don't obey?" Jaune had a feeling this answer would determine his choice. The woman looked at him seriously even as a smirk crept onto her face and a dangerous feeling started to emit from her.

"You will die" she casually responded.

Jaune should have felt terrified. He should have felt unsettled by the certainty with which she responded. The simple response of his death should have horrified him.

Instead, Jaune felt nothing but excitement. His eyes widened and he matched her smirk with a small smile.

' _This is it. She's the real deal. She's…strong_ ' he thought. He'd never felt afraid of adults in his life. He'd had some awareness that the adults in his life could beat him up but he'd never thought hard about it. The feeling of danger this woman gave him had cemented his decision.

"My name is Jaune. Jaune Arc…when do I start miss…?" he trailed off even as he struck a hand out to shake.

"It's Cinder. Cinder Fall" she responded bemusedly as she shook his hand. "Now while I'd like to chat more we should be moving".

"Sure which way are we going?" Jaune asked while tilting his head to the side.

Cinder simply looked at him amused. "I think it'll be both easier and faster if I just carry you" she stated

"Um I can walk, sure I'm tired but I won't fall behind!" Jaune stated determinedly as he stood up to prove his point.

Cinder walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He couldn't help but lean into her embrace. She was...warm and felt nice. Cinder smiled at his action and placed her lips next to his ear.

"I wasn't asking for your permission" she whispered.

Jaune didn't have time to blink as his he felt pressure on his neck before he went limp in her arms.

Cinder craned her neck over his back to look at the three bleeding claw marks on his back. The boy had been bleeding the whole time while talking to her and hadn't even noticed. She shook her head with a smile on her face as she tilted his head back to look at his face. She'd had a stroke of luck with this child and she was going to utilize him to his fullest.

She'd always wondered what it would be like to have a pet Arc.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Day Mercy Died

**AN: This story literally writes itself. Tendinitis isn't even enough to stop me from typing this out. Anyways thanks everyone for the favs, follows and reviews. It honestly makes me super happy to see people enjoying this so I hope you continue to enjoy it! :D**

 **Saberus9: Oh trust me Jaune's plenty messed up from his experience. He's still childlike with some of his thought processes so he doesn't really realize it as you'll come to see.**

 **Chapter 4 – The Day Mercy Died**

Year 13X6 NRE

Jaune Arc was not a happy camper. Why wasn't he a happy camper? The nine year old in question turned ten in fewer than six hours and Cinder had seen fit to leave him in a nightclub in Haven with one of her business partners while she ran some errands.

This particular nightclub was the largest in the entire kingdom of Haven. Being located the city's capital it was a place frequented by both young teenagers and criminals alike.

The building itself wasn't externally impressive. On the outside it looked like as if someone had taken an old hotel and simply covered the exterior in neon green and black paint. There was a large neon green sign that read "Sloan's" which hung and flickered over the doorway.

The inside is what attracted its patronage. The first floor of the building consisted of a small entryway into a massive dance floor. There were stairs on the sides of the dance floor that led up through the ceiling to the second floor. The ceiling itself had a massive circle cut out of its center and was instead replaced with glass. The majority of the remaining portions of the second floor had tables and booths on the sides for individuals to gather together, enjoy their drinks and even spectate on the dancers below. In the center of this floor was a circular bar where the drinks were served. The third floor was closed to the public but access could be given for certain individuals for a small fee.

It was an open secret that the third floor is where criminal deals went down. The open secret was never an issue however as seemingly the entire kingdom of Haven had corruption at all levels. When enough money changed hands anything could be overlooked.

Jaune wasn't uncomfortable in a nightclub setting. Oum knows he's seen Cinder involved far more illegal deals for information as he spent the last couple of years with the woman. There were even jobs where she'd kill for the additional funds to support two individuals out on the road. He'd participated in several of them as well…by serving as bait.

He sighed in exasperation at the memories. To say that Cinder's tor-training was brutal was an understatement. Since he was still young and growing she'd monitored his strength training to make sure he grew stronger while avoiding harming his growth. He'd been given a pair of medium quality daggers to complement his hunting knife and a wooden bow to practice his hunting skills. If he had the range he could take down multiple beowulfs with ease now. This sort of training sounded caring, beneficial and not brutal however, it even sounded kind.

Cinder had changed her approach after realizing that if given range he'd simply excel and not be pushed to excel. Instead she'd started throwing him against beowulfs and ursas out of the blue and expected him to kill them with his knife and daggers.

The first time she did it was four months into his training. He was _sleeping_ at the time. He'd woken up the sound of an ursa roaring outside his tent.

 _-flashback -_

 _Jaune woke up with a start to the sound of roaring and grabbed his knife and daggers before stepping out of his tent warily. Several feet in front of him was an ursa that looked particularly hungry. It was shaped like a bear except that it was almost six feet in height…while on all fours. The Ursa had white bone armor like all other grimm with its distinctive characteristic being the large amount of spikes sticking out of its back._

 _Jaune took a look at the Ursa before taking inventory of what he had on him. He had his two daggers in his left hand and his knife in his right. He was also wearing boxers._

" _Um…CINDER? YOU OUT THERE?" he called out._

" _Jaune" Cinder's voice behind him called out his name. Unwilling to turn around entirely and leave his back open for the ursa he tilted his head to the side and voiced his concerns._

" _Could you…uh…help me out here?" he nervously asked._

" _Of course I could Jaune" he could hear the smile in her voice and knew she wasn't finished. "I won't however. Consider this an evaluation of sorts. We can't have your hand to hand skills getting weak just because you happen to be exceptional with a bow now can we?"_

 _On one hand she complimented his archery and he felt a rush of pride. On the other hand he now had to fight an Ursa with three weapons, two of which were barely larger than his palm, while in his boxers._

" _If I die I swear I'm gonna haunt you for eternity Cinder" he dejectedly said as the ursa started to circle him._

" _If you die from this after four months of my_ personal _instruction I'll probably deserve it" she shot back casually._

 _The ursa lost its patience at long last and charged the strange human boy._

" _Fuck"_

 _-flashback end-_

Jaune had survived the fight along with every fight she'd sent his way after. The fighting style he was learning underneath her was one that heavily emphasized speed and dodging. He'd protested at first before Cinder had mentioned that there were limits he could reach at is young age. She told him that he could incorporate other styles that revolved around strength _after_ he'd actually gained enough muscle to make use of said techniques.

His education was not limited simply to fighting. Cinder had him reading books on history, biology and all sorts of other subjects. She repeatedly stressed that all his fighting skills meant nothing if he wasn't intelligent enough to use them. He'd asked what she meant since there grimm did not exist who could match a human in sentience let alone intelligence.

She'd told him that he would have to fight other _humans_ at some point in his life and that not all battles were physical. Fighting anything but grimm had never crossed his mind until he she started to tell him stories of the underworld of Remnant. After telling him these stories she brought him along to witness the darkness that resided in Remnant.

After witnessing theft, discrimination, murder and so many other things that he would never like to witness he'd been horrified at the types of people that existed. Cinder had then said something that blew his mind.

She'd said that they the criminals were only looking out for themselves. She'd asked him if it was morally wrong to want only the best for yourself. After all, wasn't that the only reason he was looking for strength?

Jaune did not have an answer for her to this day. He knew that the only thing needed to survive in this world strength, both mental and physical. Did strength entitle those who have it to simply take what they want? Regardless of consequences? In Haven at least, it seemed to be the case.

He slammed his head into the bar and shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts.

"You okay there blondie?" a gruff voice asked.

Jaune looked up at the source of the voice. The slightly tanned man was dressed in a black suit with a green shirt and black tie on. The man's eyes were a muddy brown and his hair was viridian. He was currently behind the bar relaxing since his employees could handle the small amount of traffic that was visiting the bar at this hour. This was Sloan Chloris. The owner of the largest nightclub in the entire kingdom of Haven, an enabler of crime and…his babysitter.

"Yeah I'm fine Sloan. Just thinking about things you know?" he responded back. He'd take any conversation right now to get his mind off of things.

"Careful kid, you might hurt yourself" he said chuckling as he went to mess up Jaune's hair. This was the third time Cinder had asked him to watch over the kid. Each time she brought him in Sloan could see small but substantial improvements in the kid's physique. He didn't understand why Cinder had picked up an apprentice but he'd be willing to babysit the kid since she typically removed some of the more _persistent_ threats to his business.

"Ack, come on Sloan! Do you know how long it took to get my hair to finally look nice?" Jaune griped. He pretty much lived in the woods and cheap hotels for his training purposes with Cinder. On the rare occasion he came somewhere nice as this club, since when did he consider criminal dens nice, he preferred to look semi-presentable.

Jaune had adopted a look to match his mentor. He wore black jeans, black boots for his bottoms. Covering his torso was a sleeveless hooded red sweatshirt on top of a black shirt with orange highlights on the rim of the hood. He had asked Cinder for her opinion on the outfit and she had given him one look at his new choice of attire before nodding in approval. Oddly enough she approved more of the black than the red.

The only thing he struggled with was getting his hair to look good. Every day it seemed to choose to stick out at various points and was a terror to get taken care off.

"So Jaune since you seem to be bored out of your skull I was thinking we switch something up for once. You interested?" Sloan had an idea that would help this kid out while keeping him out of trouble. Cinder hadn't asked him to handcuff the kid to her bar…only that he kept him safe while she was gone.

"…I might be interested. What do you have in mind?" Jaune warily asked. He liked Sloan but he didn't particularly trust him. The only person who he trusted implicitly was the woman who threw grimm his way.

" _I feel like I have a problem…nah"_ he mused.

Instead of answering Sloan picked up his scroll and dialed a number.

"Yes Reese its dad. I have someone here who is about your age and bored out of his mind. Yeah I know it's odd for another kid to be here. Anyways I want you to go show him a good time. How? Well how about you bring your board and the extra one? Yes it counts as being ungrounded now get down here." Sloan hung up the scroll and simply turned back to Jaune who was looking at him in confusion.

"You're a father? Isn't it kinda hard being a big crime boss and a dad? Also what did you mean by board?" Jaune asked rapidly. He was curious to learn more about Sloan as well as what he would apparently be doing soon.

"It's a bit hard yeah but worth it. Definitely helps that very few people are dumb enough to target my family, those that do don't tend to last long you if you know what I mean" Jaune indeed knew what he meant. He'd seen Cinder gouge a person's eyes out during a mission for Sloan. Maybe. Just Maybe. All this violence was messing him up a little. "…also at some point during your trips you must have heard of those new hoverboards hitting the market right?"

"Of course. They're supposed to surpass current skateboards in every way and even keep up with small vehicles. They also cost quite a bit from what I've heard." Jaune responded. He wouldn't mind trying one of those out but the cost was out of his league of nothing. Why was Sloan asking about…oh. Jaune's eyes widened in realization and Sloan grew a smirk on his face at his dumbstruck expression.

"Hey dad! Is this the guy?" a voice called out. Jaune turned his head to see a girl holding two black and white hoverboards underneath her arms. She had viridian color hair like her father and a slightly darker shade of eyes. Adorning her body was a light purple t-shirt and a pair of green shorts. "Heya my names Reese, nice to meet'cha!" she smiled as she reached over to shake Jaune's hand.

"Likewise, my name's Jaune" he replied casually. "So we're taking these out for a ride I take it?" he asked while turning to Sloan wanting to confirm.

"Yeah, just be back in six or so hours. Cinder will probably be back around that time and I think we'd all prefer you be here when she gets back." Sloan responded with a grin. His little girl had been down since he grounded her so hopefully this would help patch things up with her.

"Come on Jaune lets go already" Reese said impatiently. Before Jaune could even get a word in edgewise she handed him one of the boards and grabbed his free hand with the other. As Jaune was dragged out of the club he took a moment to look at the hoverboard. It was barely larger than his torso but almost as wide. The board was mostly white with black foot grips near the middle of the board and black highlights and vents on the sides.

As they walked out onto the street Jaune decided now would be a good as time as any to point something out to the incredibly enthusiastic girl.

"I don't actually know how to use these by the way" he stated in a slightly amused manner.

Reese gave him a look of abject horror before adopting a thinking pose. He wondered what on earth he said to cause her to think so hard.

"I GOT IT!" she yelled catching Jaune off guard at the sudden exclamation. "I'll teach you how to use it so you can be as good as me one day!" Reese declared confidently.

"What makes you think I won't just be better?" Jaune shot back teasingly. He laughed as her cheeks puffed up as she pouted. He hadn't interacted with anyone his age for a long time now. Was this how Cinder felt when he had his…less mature moments?

Actually Cinder would probably be livid instead of amused. He shook the thought away as Reese said there was absolutely no way he'd be better than her.

Guess it was time to try and prove her wrong.

* * *

Cinder was rather enjoying her current mission. She was in the process of sniffing out a gang that had threatened Sloan recently. Jaune had been left behind in Sloan's care for the time being to keep him out of trouble. Thinking on her apprentice she couldn't help but recall the first time she had held a lengthy conversation with him. He had described, in detail, how he'd gotten over his fear of blood.

 _-flashback starts-_

" _So I thought I just needed to get used to it right? So every day as I went to school and came back I'd look for a squirrel or a bird. It took a long time for me to be able to hit them in the head with rocks by the way. Those little guys are fast! So anyways I'd knock them out then cut them up or whatever I felt like-"Jaune continued to ramble on about what he did to small animals._

 _Cinder did not know how to feel about her new apprentice. It was nice that he seemed to have no issues taking life, even if it was from small animals, but that he started at such a young age was indeed concerning. It could even be potentially problematic._

 _That his descriptions had just extended to describing how he'd once tried to use a squirrel's spine as a bracelet had nothing do with her concern in the slightest._

 _She'd never have imagined that the runaway arc was more than a little mentally unhinged._

 _The fascinating part was how he explained it calmly and rationally. He'd somehow managed to maintain childlike traits such as his outlook and empathy while losing many conniptions of morality._

 _It would be no small work to make sure he grew into what she wished without developing into psychopath. If he maintained the semi-sociopathic tendencies he currently had however? No problem there as long as he obeyed her._

 _-flashback ends-_

She smiled back at the memory. Deciding to take her little sociopath on her missions occasionally had helped him develop quite nicely. Even he'd shown _some_ discomfort initially when she'd taken human life. Like everything else however he rapidly grew out of it once she explained it would help him grow stronger.

He'd yet to give her an answer from when she essentially asked him if morals could be put aside for strength. That didn't mean she didn't know his answer however. If it helped him grow stronger Jaune would do anything she asked. At this point in their relationship his gratitude towards her had seemingly shifted his perception.

She was almost certain he'd started to see her as mother figure of all things. As if she had a motherly bone in her body!

Cinder pushed the thought to the side as she finally managed to find the warehouse her targets seemed to meet in. She smiled before drawing her bow and taking aim at a pair of guards who were serving as look out. There was nothing more stress relieving than causing death.

* * *

 _5 hours later_

Reese was mortified. The first hour she spent teaching Jaune how to ride was hilarious as he could barely stand let lone ride. The second hour he'd gotten the basics down. By the third hour he'd gotten comfortable enough to get used to tricks. At four hours. After four stupid hours he matched her in every way.

Now?

Now he was thoroughly trouncing her in their race across the city. She watched as Jaune casually hopped, grinded and drifted over traffic signs, cars as he flew across town.

"This is great thanks for the lessons _teach_ " Jaune called back to her sarcastically. How on earth a person could get so good so fast was beyond her. She wouldn't lose to him though.

"You can thank me from second place Jaune!" she yelled back and tried to catch up to him.

The blonde in question was having a blast. He'd always enjoyed running and jumping through his surroundings but on this board he was able to go so much faster. As the wind blew through his hair and his surroundings blurred he continued to jump, grind and skid around his surroundings. Adrenaline flowing through his body was unusual when not in a life or death situation but not unpleasant.

"You mean _you_ can congratulate _me_ from second Reese!" Jaune shouted. While grateful for this experience it sure as hell didn't mean he was going to go easy on her. He shifted his focus back onto the road as it had gotten surprisingly dark while they were out. Five hundred feet out from him he could see the park in the center of town that Reese had decided was the finish line. He sped up to get to the finish line when he heard a scream followed by an impact on his back as he went flying forward.

Dazed from hitting the ground Jaune looked up to see Reese laying on top of him and her board quite a ways back.

Did she _jump_ from her board to not let him win?! The question went unsaid as he elegantly raised any eyebrow as her head rose of his chest and made eye contact.

"…I _told_ you that you weren't going to win…we can call it a tie!" she firmly said.

Jaune just sighed and laid his head back against the ground. It had been a fun day. Maybe he'd just lie down for a little while and relax.

"Hey, it's the Chloris brat we were looking for" a voice stated.

Jaune, instantly on alert shot up to his feet, which resulted in Reese being rather abruptly dislocated from him. He spotted three men approaching him. Each was dressed in a black suit and wearing…yellow scarves? Ignoring the odd choice of uniform he decided to gather some information. They looked like run of the mill grunts but they may still know something.

"What do you guys want with Reese?" Jaune asked as he stepped protectively in front of Reese. He heard her get up behind him.

The men chuckled at the sight of a kid trying to act tough. The one in the middle, possibly the leader of this little group, decided to speak up.

"Well you see her father has been making our gang's work harder than it has to be. Unfortunately we weren't able to negotiate a better deal. So our boss wants to have a little…chat with Sloan's daughter to see if we can convince him to lighten up. So how about you join us for a little walk kids?"

Jaune grimaced at the words. These men wanted Reese hostage. They didn't look like hunters which was good. If he could take on grimm these three stooges shouldn't be a problem. He glanced behind him to see a nervous Reese. The problem was whether he could protect her and fight at the same time.

" _Cinder's lesson number one. The best way to start a fight is with the element of surprise"_ Jaune thought morbidly to himself. The men looked like they were getting impatient so he decided to take some action.

He pulled out a dagger and threw it off as fast as possible. Jaune tracked his dagger's progress as it left his hand. It seemed to sail through the air for hours despite it really being roughly half a second. The slow motion ended and he watched detachedly as it sailed into the apparent leader's eye and into his skull.

Jaune watched in a mix of mild horror and fascination as there was a brief scream before the man fell over. Dead.

He'd forgotten that he wasn't fighting grimm.

"JAUNE!" he heard Reese cry out behind him. His momentary shock disrupted and he felt an odd sense of numbness as he glanced up to see the remaining two thugs charging him. He ran forward to meet them as he slid his knife into his right hand as per usual and readied his dagger in his left. The two men, now prepared pulled out their own knives to fight him.

"YOU BASTARD!" the thug to his right yelled as he attempted to stab Jaune only to have his stab parried before being met with a kick to face as Jaune jumped. The man went flying back before passing out on the ground.

Jaune turned to the last man who was horrified and staring at him as if he was a demon.

" _Why's he looking at me like that? HE was the one who tried to kidnap my friend!"_ Jaune's thoughts slowed at that last word. Friend. He hadn't had many friends before and now Reese was apparently part of that group.

This man had threatened her.

Jaune's fury lit alight at the thought and before the man could move he charged the man, dodged underneath his frantic slash and stabbed him in the throat. He tore the blades out as blood splashed his hands and shirt.

"J-Jaune?" he heard a scared voice behind him. Jaune turned around to see Reese looking at him. Terrified. He let out a sigh. He supposed he was numb to killing for the first time since he's been watching Cinder do it so often. It appeared Sloan actually sheltered his daughter.

"It's okay Reese" he tried to say comfortingly. He slowly placed his weapons back in his pockets and spread his arms to show he was unharmed. "Are you okay though?" he asked her. She hadn't fought but it was still a jarring thought to be a target of a kidnapping.

His question seemed to break the dam as Reese ran up to him and hugged him. He simply let her hug him as he tried to hug her back without getting his bloody handprints on her. Jaune felt his shirt get damper and he looked down with horror as she seemed to be _crying_ of all things. He had no clue how to handle this. He heard familiar footsteps behind him and prayed to Oum it wasn't who he thought it was.

"Jaune…who would have thought you would be cleaning up for me?" Cinder's voice came across as amused.

Oh good so she wasn't upset with him leaving Sloan's. He may leave here without a beating yet.

"I…wasn't aware I cleaned anything…" Jaune trailed off rather dumbly. He also noticed Reese disengaging from him to look at Cinder. Deciding that he _really_ didn't want Cinder focusing on Reese he decided to follow up. "What do you mean exactly?"

She merely game him a serene smile as she explained. "Well, Sloan was aware of a potential threat to his daughter so he asked me to exterminate the gang. As I was about to finish off their boss he screamed that Reese over here was still going to die. Imagine my surprise when the three I had left to kill were already taken care of by my dear _obedient_ apprentice."

Okay so maybe she was mad. A little bit. As he opened his mouth to explain he heard a groaning. The thug he'd knocked out was regaining consciousness.

"I'll tell you what Jaune. I was going to wait till you obtained your first kill to unlock your Aura anyways so I'll let your disobedience go this once…if you actually finish this job". As she finished her statement she drew her bow and let loose two arrows. Each one embedded themselves into the man's achilles tendons preventing him from being able to run away.

Jaune sighed as he pulled out his dagger. He started to walk over before Cinder asked him where his other one was. He pointed at the first goon he killed.

"Inside that one's skull. Could I just use this one?" he asked. She simply smirked at him before shaking her head in the negative. Jaune grimaced as he walked over to the first man. He could see the handle of his blade just inside the eye socket. As he reached in to grab it he could make out the sound of Reese retching behind him. Fuck. Sloan was going to be furious that his daughter saw this. He yanked the blade out before shaking as much grey matter and blood of it as possible.

Jaune walked up to the man as said man was attempting to crawl away. He turned the man onto his back with his leg so he could get this done with quicker.

"Come on man, c-can't you let it go? I swear I'll repent, I'll-"the man never got to finish his pleading due to a dagger piercing his larynx. Jaune stabbed in a second hole purely out of caution and walked back to Cinder leaving the man to bleed out behind him.

"That was rather…ruthless of you Jaune. No hesitation, no guilt?" her statement turned into a question at the end. While Cinder approved of his mental state she wanted to make sure he didn't try and hide any conflicts from her. It would prove difficult to mold him if he kept any doubts from her. To her surprise Jaune knelt in front of her and kept his eyes firmly on the ground.

"You told me to do something Cinder and I disobeyed. I'm really sorry and it won't happen again" he said sincerely. Cinder had given him so much of her time and resources pretty much for free. If he hadn't disobeyed not only would he have not been in danger but he could have spared Reese from this sight. If this hurt Cinder's business relationship with Sloan it would have been entirely his fault.

He genuinely hated himself for his disobedience.

"You are forgiven Jaune since you realize you were wrong. I'm positive this won't happen again. Now let us go visit your father Reese. I'm _positive_ he'll want to know you're safe" she said in a kind voice. Her tone seemed to cheer Reese up slightly though the girl remained wary around Jaune's teacher.

As they walked back they heard the capital's clock tower start to chime. Cinder turned her head to the sign and met Jaune's slowly widening eyes.

"It wouldn't do to forget…Happy Birthday Jaune".


	5. Chapter 5 - A Brand New Start

**AN: This is the last multiple year time skip of the story so if you're hoping Jaune all of a sudden ends up at Beacon you're going to be waiting quite a while. Nonetheless I plan to build up the world of Remnant and really flesh it out and drag you all in here with me:D At some point I'll get busy enough where I'll have to upload only once a week but until then lets ride this wave of free time!**

 **Chapter 5 – A Brand New Start**

Year 13X9 NRE

The Kingdom of Atlas was located in the far northern part of Remnant. It's location in the north had made it challenging for initial settlers due to having to deal with blistering cold winds, snow, ice and the dangers that came with it. These settlers however were innovative in their use of dust. They had developed methods of using dust to fuel and create like no other kingdom. They chose to spread their technological developments and aid across the kingdoms in order to help defend against the ever-present threat of the Grimm.

Today Atlas was a thriving technological giant of a kingdom. The Schnee Dust Company located within Atlas was the single largest supplier of dust to all the kingdoms. This allowed for a significant amount of wealth to be poured into the kingdom's economy.

Atlas was the only kingdom in which its governing body, military and hunter academies all coordinated with each other. The capital of Atlas was named after its kingdom just like the rest of the kingdoms. It was a city that could only be described as metropolitan. Tall gleaming sky scrapers piercing the skies all close together created the horizon. The densely packed city provided had a plethora of public transportation services from subways, to taxis and even buses to assist its population in moving around with ease. Despite these options many individuals still chose to utilize their own transportation methods ranging from walking, hover boards or their own vehicles.

In the south-east side of the city one skyscraper stood out among others. This sky scraper was an apartment complex in which middle class citizens would reside. What stood out about this building was the sight of a window shattering as a fluffy brown teddy bear of all things rocketed out of the window.

* * *

"That's the fifth teddy bear this week.." a voice sighed.

The voice belonged to an annoyed blonde thirteen-year old who laid in bed. The teenager rolled onto his stomach and attempted to get additional precious moments of sleep. As he rolled over the light streaming in through his window highlighted a scar running down the front of his chest and three thinner claw like marks covering a small portion of his back.

The bedroom was dark aside from the light coming in from the shattered window. The walls and ceiling were a plain white. This teenager's furniture consisted of nothing but the barebones essentials. His bed was up against the wall underneath the window and next to it was a small dresser which held the majority of his clothing. Across the room was a closet where his remaining clothes hung along with his weapons. There was a single door which led outside to the rest of his humble abode.

The teenager's scroll lit up and an alarm went off signaling that it was time for him to rise.

"Fine, fine, I'm up" Jaune grumbled as he opened his sapphire eyes to the world. He reached underneath his bed and pulled out a replacement window frame and mechanically installed it to repair the damage.

Jaune had changed in the little over six years he'd spent with Cinder. At the age of 13 he had gone from an average looking seven year old to a teenager with decent muscle definition. Jaune had grown to the decent height of 5 feet 4 inches as a result of his training and mandated healthy diet.

He shuddered at recalling the first and last time he'd refused Cinder's cooking. It was a year ago and had argued for a different meal. He'd specifically asked to eat something different something that "doesn't taste like garbage".

It was a remarkable moment of immaturity. Cinder had briefly mentioned that puberty must have started for him to say something so rebellious. His age had not however prevented Cinder from beating him unconscious and then letting him recover without food for two days.

Jaune had never complained about her cooking again.

He slapped his cheeks to help him wake up as he rose out of bed. Walking over to his dresser he picked a pair of black jeans, a black t-shirt and a white hooded jacket before exiting his room.

Jaune's living room was as sparsely decorated his bedroom. It consisted of a couch facing a small television on one side of the room and a small kitchen walled into the other side. Next to the kitchen there was a small walkway that led to the bathroom. As he stepped into to the shower and turned on the hot water he couldn't help but sigh at the fact that he would have to replace the damn teddy with one of the other _ninety-five_ in the closet.

His semblance was perfectly fine as far as control went. Except for when he woke up. The very first item he would touch after sleeping for precisely eight hours or more would go flying at shotgun speeds in a random direction. He thought back to the first time he utilized his semblance for combat a year ago.

 _-flashback-_

 _Jaune was excited to finally use his semblance against something. He'd first discovered it while on a mission for Cinder. He'd been surrounded and to escape he'd grabbed some dirt and aimed to fling it into_ _his three pursuers eyes. Instead the dirt had pierced through their bodies like a shotgun and mangled them beyond recognition. After experimenting with Cinder they'd found out what his semblance was._

 _His semblance allowed him to control the direction and speed of any object he touched. Cinder had said it was probably born from his desire of control in his life and the situations he found himself in._

 _There were limits to his power at the moment he'd found. His control was limited by the size, mass and the amount of the object he was trying to move. A single stone he could launch off at nearly sniper speeds. A handful of rocks however would be reduced to the power of a shotgun or less. Another human being? He could move them about five or six feet when combined with a punch but that was pretty much it. Anything bigger was unlikely to move until he either had some breakthrough with his aura control or until he got older and had more aura to throw around._

 _Jaune watched as his target dragged a woman into a nearby alley. His target tonight was a rapist who had been drawing too much police attention into this area of the city lately. As long as he killed his target in a way that he could still be recognized he'd be paid quite handsomely. Deciding to get the show on the road Jaune walked into the nearby alley as he heard his target unzip his pants. Getting an amusing idea he let out a loud whistle. As the man turned around Jaune picked up two glass bottles on the ground of the alley._

" _What the fuck you think you're doing here kid?" his target asked him. Jaune disregarded his words and took aim. One bottle shot through his targets genitals and another through his heart._

 _The man fell over onto his back._

 _Jaune glanced at the man's body in interest. Apparently the bottles had been heated up from the speed and cauterized the wounds. Instead of bleeding out his body was simply shutting down from a lack of blood flow. He didn't know how long it would take so Jaune reached out snapped the man's neck. Jaune heard what sounded like a mix between a scream and a sob. Looking up he saw the woman the man had dragged into the alley._

 _She wasn't particularly attractive nor was she ugly. The woman seemed normal enough that there wouldn't be a big stir if she went missing. His target must've been desperate. Either way the woman seemed to snap out of it and had thanked him._

 _Pity she was a witness. Cinder had been quite clear: nobody was allowed to witness his semblance testing._

 _Jaune scooped up a handful of dirt from the ground and held it in his open palm. The poor woman seemed to gain a look of confusion. Her expression, along with everything above her neck, was splattered into the wall behind her. He sighed as he realized that there was another body now for him to clean up._

 _-flashback end-_

Jaune shook the memories from his head as he exited his shower. After getting dressed and having a quick breakfast he grabbed his two hunting knives as he stepped out of his apartment. Today was the day that Jaune started his special long-term mission for Cinder.

His mission: Infiltrate Atlas Special Forces

His assigned method: go to school

Jaune was horrified when Cinder first told him that he would have to attend Atlas' equivalent of Signal, Haze Academy. Haze was their feeder school into Atlas Academy from where students were often encouraged to join up with the military. It was the perfect entry point for his mission.

Cinder had also given him a special rule for completing his mission. He was to be the best of the best. If he could not even top peers his age with all the training he'd been through it would disappoint her. Despite his reluctance Jaune had determined to be the best of the best.

He decided that instead of simply taking his hoverboard he'd use nothing but public transportation to arrive at Haze. Traveling this way was slightly slower but gave him the opportunity to become more used to his surroundings and give him chances to hear interesting gossip. As Jaune walked down the street towards the subway he couldn't help but admire the skyscrapers that surrounded him. Atlas was so technically advanced compared to the other kingdoms it was amazing that they hadn't thought to conquer the others. He supposed the threat of the grimm was enough to result in the unity across Remnant.

Arriving at the subway Jaune boarded the train that would take him near Haze academy. Calling the train a subway train would be a mistake however. It was a highspeed monorail that just so happened to be underneath Atlas. It took less than thirty minutes before Jaune disembarked and began his final walk towards Haze.

He spotted a variety of students all dressed in greys, blacks and whites. They hadn't had their uniforms handed out but Atlas fashion pretty much focused on those three colors. Jaune grimaced at his white jacket. He appreciated it immensely since it had been a gift from Cinder to celebrate his move to Atlas but he'd still rather have his old red one back.

Jaune felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled out his personal scroll. The vibration surprised him as the only ones who should have his number are Cinder and Haze Academy itself for registration purposes. He glanced at the sender to be proven right as it was a message from the director of both of Atlas' academies. General Ironwood.

 _Dear Jaune Fall, this message is to inform you that your scores on the placement exams were a perfect one-hundred percent's across the board. This tied you with only one other person. It is Haze Academy tradition to have the top two scoring students face each other in an exhibition match at the beginning of the school year. The information is only provided an hour prior to the match in order to prevent either competitor obtaining an advantage over the other. We wish you the best of luck and a productive school year._

Jaune simply stared at the letter. One on hand he was pleased, that his last name came across as Fall meant his disguise as the son of Cinder Fall, teacher at Haven was legitimate. On the other hand, he now had to fight someone without having anything more than his two knives on him.

" _What the fuck kind of school is this?!"_ sure some combat experience was expected but he highly doubted that many other children had as extensive training as he did. He consoled himself in the knowledge that if it came to it he could always disguise his semblance as super strength and utilize it to win.

With a grunt of annoyance he shoved the scroll in his pocket as he glanced up at the upcoming sight of Haze Academy. The campus was split into three separate sections. The center building was a skyscraper which was where he presumed classes and the cafeteria would be located. The building to its right was a small silver stadium which was where all new students were expected to go. The final building on the left was the building which contained their teacher's offices and infirmary. From what he heard, all staff members were expected to be in their offices for at least five hours after classes let out for the day in order to provide assistance for the students who needed it. He would definitely take the chance to make the connections he could.

Jaune sped up his walk as he realized he would be slightly late for the assembly if he continued at his current pace. Stepping into the stadium he realized the design was quite different from what he was used to. There must have been thousands of people seated within. He knew Atlas had a larger population of fighters but he'd never realized just how many. Most of the students here were unlikely to become hunters but would still go onto become members of the massive military that Atlas had. In the center of the stadium there was an arena pit with a microphone in the middle.

So that's where he was going to be fighting.

He realized that for every student he saw, there were one or two adults seated in the arena. Their parents. He felt a pang of loneliness before shaking it off and finding a seat. Sure he missed Cinder but he had a job to do and he wouldn't mess up just because of his feelings.

The lights dimmed and a spotlight shone on the center of the arena. The light shone upon a man dressed in a white military uniform. His black hair was swept to the side and had a multitude of grey streaks on the sides. The two things Jaune noticed the most were the man's sharp blue eyes and the white glove on his right hand. This was the most powerful man in all of Atlas. This was General Ironwood. He watched as the general took a deep breath before beginning a speech.

"Welcome to Haze Academy. Today is the beginning of a new dawn, the dawn of your futures. In your four years here we will be teaching you all the basics of combat, world knowledge and various other skills to help you succeed. Many of you will go onto Atlas Academy after years here and _some_ will go elsewhere. The teacher's here will endeavor to…"

Jaune couldn't help but tune out the General's speech. It was sooooo _boring_. The speech was nothing but subtle inspiring propaganda meant to encourage students to continue serving Atlas over leaving the country. That was noticeable early on with the tone of voice Ironwood used when describing those who go elsewhere. He decided to look around discreetly to view his peers. To his mounting horror all the students were practically eating up the general's words.

These were the morons he would have to spend his next four years with?

" _Fuck my life"_ Jaune thought morosely. He heard the speech change in tone and decided now would as good a time as ever to pay attention again.

"To maintain current traditions we will have the top two scorers on our exams come down for a demonstration bout. Would Jaune Fall and Weiss Schnee please come down the stairs on the sides of the arena?" as the general ended his speech Jaune noticed multiple sections of the arena wall fold stairs out of them.

"Wait a minute Weiss Schnee?" Jaune muttered to himself as he got up and started to walk towards the stairs. He glanced around and made eye contact with the girl. The first things he noticed about her were the icy-blue eyes and the thin rapier at her side. Aside from being slightly longer than usual there was nothing special about it. Her long white hair was in a ponytail held together by…was that a tiara pin? Jaune inwardly scoffed. The pin alongside her plain white battledress seemed to perfect her image of an heiress.

She was also quite short at around a mere five feet.

This was the youngest Schnee, his own classmate. Jaune made sure to keep a neutral expression as he descended the stairs towards the center of the arena even as his mind raced with possibilities on how to make a connection with her. He reached the general at the same time as the heiress and the general smiled down at both of them.

"Now I want you two to have a good, clean fight. I wish you both the best of luck and congratulations on currently being tied for first place among your peers" he finished with a smile and walked off the arena. As he walked down a multiple screens at the top of the stadium lit up with a thirty second timer and a measure of their aura levels.

Jaune watched as the heiress pulled out her rapier and adopted a basic fencing stance. He couldn't help but notice the multiple openings but for their age it was pretty good. He'd have to deliberately keep his level down so that he could beat the heiress while not raising suspicion. Jaune pulled out his knives and held them up. He decided he'd finally try some of that pre-fight banter he'd heard so much about.

"Nice to meet you Weiss, I'm Jaune" he said with a smile. It felt odd being polite while holding a pair of knives up but hey that was life. She gave him a disbelieving look as if she couldn't believe he was talking to her. That couldn't have been right though. There was no way someone who appeared so innocent and lovely could be that disparaging.

"I don't know how a nobody like you ended up tied with me but don't expect it to last" she responded haughtily.

He'd been wrong about people before. Apparently the heiress was a bitch. He would still play down his abilities but oum damn it he was going to make this girl hurt. He chanced a glance back at the clock and saw five seconds remaining.

"Oh I think it'll last _all_ four years. You'll be the one chasing me princess" he couldn't help but be the one to make the last shot before the fight started. It certainly seemed to throw her off before he saw her cheeks gain a tinge of red.

Yeah he pissed her off.

Weiss charged Jaune and thrust her rapier right at his face. He sidestepped and lunged into her personal space with an upward slash towards her chest with his right knife. The blade would have connected, and hopefully knocked her aura down a good bit as punishment for going right for his face.

Would have connected being the operative statement.

Jaune watched in surprise as a white glowing snowflake appeared underneath Weiss and sent her flying backwards away from the blade.

" _So that's the famous Schnee semblance. She probably hasn't mastered it at her age so she can probably only enhance her moves or move herself. I'll have to be prepared in case she can do more though."_ Jaune thought to himself. He continued to observe the girl now glaring at him from the other side of the arena. To his surprise she took a deep breath and calmed herself before presenting an icy front. A giant glyph formed itself in front of her and rotated at rapid speeds. She gave him a smirk before adopting another charging stance.

Was she really just going to try going faster?

Jaune sighed only for his eyes to widen as she closed distance at a speed he definitely did not expect. He quickly held his knives in a cross guard in front of him as be barely blocked her enhanced thrust. What surprised Jaune the most was that his arms buckled and his feet slid back as he held off her momentum. Finally he ducked his head and using his left knife he knocked the blade from her hands to the side. Before she could retaliate hit her with a semblance enhanced right hook which sent her flying across the arena. As Weiss attempted to get up he held the knife in his right hand up to her neck.

It was only as he put her in check did he realize that she was exhausted. He glanced up at the screen and his mouth dropped in surprise to see her aura level down to thirty out of one hundred. What was even more surprising was that his had dropped to ninety simply from blocking the blow from earlier. If he had been hit that would have actually caused substantial damage to his aura levels and he would have had to take the fight seriously…

" _I completely forgot to go easy on her"_ Jaune realized with horror. All he had done was dodge, defend and go on the offensive twice to beat the Schnee heiress. He had grossly underestimated how much strength to use _on a thirteen year old girl._

Well, at least he didn't blow her head off. That would have caused a problem. As he heard the match called he pocketed his knives and held a hand out to the girl.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot, it was a fun fight Weiss" Jaune said sincerely. While it wasn't much of a fight it was certainly interesting to fight against a semblance that _didn't_ involve burning his clothes.

"…It was… _fun"_ Weiss responded as though the word sounded odd to her. She took his hand and straightened her dress as she looked him in the eyes before bowing slightly. "I…would like to apologize for my earlier statements. They were…rude and you had done nothing to deserve them. I hope we can be…friends?" Weiss asked the last with concern.

"Sure Weiss, let's be great _friends_ " he said as he shook her hand. He chuckled a bit at the thought. Clearly the heiress had been secluded as a child and wasn't exactly a perfect socialite.

Then again he had lived in woods and killed grimm and random people for his pseudo-mother figure. Okay he was probably a lot more messed up.

As they shook hands he heard cheering from the stadium. Every student seemed to have enjoyed the short, yet blatantly one-sided match. He watched as Ironwood stepped up behind them with a smile and gave an announcement.

"There you are ladies and gentlemen, your two strongest members at the moment. Weiss Schnee who has remarkable mastery over her glyphs for her age. Jaune Fall with his defensive yet incredibly efficient style of fighting!" he announced. "That will be all for today. Students please follow the instructions emailed to your scroll to find your orientation leaders. After orientation you may all head home for the day and enjoy your first day of classes tomorrow!".

* * *

While the students were out on orientation James Ironwood was sitting at his desk with a rather expensive bottle of alcohol at his side. He had a feeling he would be needing it after this conversation.

"James, who did Weiss lose to? I had my daughter trained as hard as her sister for six long years and she lost." Never let it be said that Walden Schnee was subtle. It was understandable that he would be more than a little annoyed. Walden cared for his daughter and wanted her to be successful and happy which is why he backed her training. To find that she lost however must have come as a shock to the man.

"Your daughter lost to Jaune Fall. The adopted son of Cinder Fall, the combat instructor Haven hired two years ago. If I had to guess he's had as much training, if not more so than your daughter". James responded with an honest expression.

"Haven?" Walden responded in surprise. "Why did he simply not attend his mother's school?" he asked curiously.

"We actually had someone call his mom and ask. Apparently her son wanted some space for himself to grow and so he came here instead. I know you are worried but look at it this way, your daughter will grow far faster with a rival." James was greeted with a sound of reluctant approval before Walden simply hung up.

He sighed as he opened up Jaune's file to be greeted by a younger version of his friend Declan's face. That he could see Cedilla's features in there only affirmed his suspicions. Jaune Fall was Jaune Arc. He'd gone missing six years ago only to apparently be adopted two years prior. What had he been doing on his own for four years? How did he survive? There were many questions he had for the boy but also one for himself.

Should he let Declan know?

He hated himself for even having to ask the question in the first place. If he gave Declan the information it would cause him a massive headache. Not only would the man come storming into Haze to find Jaune but he would have to stop Declan from taking him home. Jaune was now the legal ward of Ms. Fall and whether or not Declan liked it any attempt of taking him back would equate to kidnapping.

It would be his job to stop Declan and if that didn't open up a can of worms he didn't know what would.

Perhaps it would be better to simply let Jaune fade away from the spotlight. It wasn't as if…anybody…would recognize…His brain ground to a halt as he recalled one very important fact. James mentally cried as his door slammed open and he was greeted by the sight of the brand new combat instructor at Haze Academy.

Cynthia Arc was the second oldest of the Arc siblings. At the age of twenty-two she had already served for four years in Atlas special forces before deciding she would rather train those younger than her. Her blonde hair was braided over one her left shoulder and she wore a navy blue women's blazer over a white dress shirt. Her pants were a soft grey which accentuated her navy boots. While normally a pleasant woman to see, the chilling glare of her blue eyes nullified all her natural charm.

"General Ironwood, why is my brother here?" she asked in a livid tone. James decided he could play this off in a way that wouldn't result in him getting in trouble.

"Well, why don't I tell you what I know and we can call him in for a chat?"

* * *

Jaune was…terrified. That would be the word to describe him.

Initially Jaune was merely annoyed. Oh he certainly didn't look it as he maintained a friendly smile while talking with Weiss and a small group of his fellow classmates as they were shown the school. These dull icebreakers however were threatening to make him want to kill someone however. His emotions did however take a turn when his orientation leader, some upperclassmen whose name he didn't pay attention to, told him that he was being summoned to General Ironwood's Haze office.

No sooner did he knock on the door was it swung open and he was left staring at his sister's face. He'd told Cinder he had a sister here in the Special Forces and she told him to deal with it as he saw fit. He did _not_ anticipate on dealing with it this early. He inwardly calmed himself down and thought about the situation. If his sister was in Ironwood's office it meant they both knew he was an Arc and were probably going to send him home. He wouldn't go without a fight. So Jaune decided to adopt the informal strategy of acting immature.

Jaune stepped right past his sister and asked the first thing he needed confirmed. "You haven't told my birth parent I'm here correct? They have no legal right to know."

"JAUNE!" he heard his sister exclaim behind him.

"No, no I haven't. Nor" he paused to look at Cynthia "do I plan to. I simply thought it would be prudent to let you and your sister talk. I'll be leaving now." Ironwood simply got up and walked out the door before closing it behind him.

Jaune stared agape at the door. Did General fucking Ironwood just throw him under the bus to avoid dealing with his sister? On second thought looking at his sister starting to redden in fury he didn't blame him. What surprised him was when his sister, instead of yelling, had tears start to stream down her face. She knelt to the ground and pulled him to her in a hug as she sobbed into his shoulder.

Until now Jaune had entirely discounted how his sisters would feel.

"Why Jaune? Why did you run away?" his sister asked as she pulled his head back to look in his eyes. Jaune decided to stick to his truthful reason. There was no point in lying about something as small as this.

"To become stronger. I've become stronger as a result and I have no regrets…even if it meant leaving you all behind" he firmly stated while looking her firmly in the eyes. It was best to let his sister know in advance that she wouldn't be winning in this.

"To become stronger?" she whispered. Her expression was instantly overcome with rage. "WE ALL SEARCHED FOR YOU. WE THOUGHT YOU DIED WHEN WE COULDN'T FIND YOU. DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH PAIN YOU CAUSED JAUNE? AND ALL FOR THIS STUPID REASON?" she was furious as she screamed at him. Their family had been nearly torn apart by his choice. None of the sisters agreed with their father's decision but had been horrified by Jaune's departure. The blame game had nearly torn their family apart were it not for their mother holding everyone together.

"I don't care" Jaune's blunt but honest answer could have been a slap to Cynthia's face. Her expression went from angry to hurt but Jaune wasn't done. "If belonging to the Arc family would cost me my dreams then it wasn't worth belonging to".

"D-do you really mean that Jaune?" curse her stutter. She gathered herself before continuing "Is this…Cinder Fall really that much better a family than us?" There was some derision in her tone. Cynthia froze as she glimpsed an emotion she had never seen in her brother's eyes. It was pure unadulterated hate.

"Do .Speak of her that way. I've had nothing but support and affection in the time I've been with her. You can still be part of my life Cynthia, but not if you can't support me like proper family". The frosty tone he took on as he spoke could have frozen the sun. Cynthia took a step back to actually look at her younger brother.

She visualized her seven-year old brother next to this adolescent version. Aside from some basic characteristics they were too different. Not just in body but in attitude. The maturity and anger coming from this new individual could not be reconciled with the image she had of her younger brother.

It didn't change the face however, that he was still her little brother. She had kept her eyes out for him long after the rest of their family gave up. Now that he was finally in front of her, was she going to give him up again?

"I…will not mention you to our parents" Cynthia spoke with great reluctance. She could see the visible surprise on Jaune's face and the doubt. "I'm not doing this to be nice. I lost my little brother once; I refuse to lose you again. Let me get to know you again and we'll call it even".

Jaune visibly relaxed at her words. It would certainly make his life easier if his sister didn't cause a ruckus in exchange for getting along with him. He _had_ missed his sisters at points over the years so he wasn't particularly against it.

"By the way sis…why are you here? I mean at Haze Academy not the office" Jaune inquired. Not one time had he thought about what it meant for his sister to be at the academy. Her amused grin promised him nothing but pain.

"I'm your _combat_ instructor Jaune. We're going to have so much fun catching up _in class_ as well as out of class" she was visibly trying not to laugh as she explained it to him.

"Oh fuck my li-"

Thus began Jaune's sojourn at Haze Academy.


	6. Chapter 6 - Changes

**AN: Came out a bit later than I planned but this one took a lot of editing. I hope you all enjoy and do leave reviews as I enjoy reading them :D**

 **Chapter 6 – Changes**

Year 13X9 NRE

Jaune sighed in annoyance as he struggled not to loosen his tie. He'd mostly gotten used to the Haze Academy uniform over the past month but the tie was a constant source of annoyance. The gray vest, white dress pants and white dress shirt were no problem at all. The horrendous black noose of death however always seemed just a little bit too tight or too loses to be comfortable. There was a however, three other more pressing frustrations Jaune had to deal with. The first was the classes at Haze Academy.

Dear Oum in heaven were these classes boring.

He'd expected combat to be boring and wasn't disappointed. He'd read ahead in the syllabus and found that they'd only be starting basic combat stances at the _end_ of the year. The rest was entirely physical conditioning and theory on fighting. The only bright side of this class was that his sister had been particularly vindictive and had him performing physical conditioning that had in fact posed a challenge for him.

No other students dared to point out to their teacher that his routine would likely cause them to faint for fear of joining him.

The school offered courses on a variety of topics he absolutely did not care for such as literature, math and cooking. The only other course he had slight interest in was history…of Atlas. While disappointing that he wouldn't get to learn more about Remnant as a whole he would accept more knowledge of the area where he was to live for years. There was certainly a fair amount of nationalistic propaganda mixed in with the history but Jaune would take what he could get. He'd accept any positives since Cinder requested him to maintain his top spot in his class.

How he went from killing to attempting to bake a cake that didn't explode into a poisonous mist still confused him at times.

"Jaune, stop fiddling with your tie before Ms. Arc notices!" a female voice whispered to him. This brought him no amount of joy as he turned a baleful eye to the girl seated on his right during the lecture portion of their combat class.

Weiss Schnee had hopped on him faster than a beowulf on a baby. Wasn't that some strong imagery?

The girl had taken their post-fight chat as a sign of being best friends. That she was in _all_ his classes did not help. Weiss walked with him from class to class, to lunch and sat to his right in _every fucking class._ His sister had taken to teasing him about his "little girlfriend" from the first day and it was starting to get annoying. What horrified him more so was that even the other classmates he talked to had started pairing them together, or as they called it "shipping" Attempting to deny it resulted in nothing more than a knowing look, a wink and a greater headache for him to deal with.

Jaune couldn't _not_ become friends with her. She was a Schnee. Cinder would be livid if he didn't take an opportunity to get along with a Schnee just because he felt awkward. Taking a closer look at her he couldn't deny that she was more than a little pretty. Even with the dull grey skirt and leggings that the girls had to wear as part of their uniform in addition to their own grey vests she seemed to pull it off.

"I'd stop if I could get it to be just right, not my fault this abomination doesn't like to be comfy" Jaune griped lightly as he resumed his struggle. Weiss gave him an exasperated look before deciding to take things into her own hands.

"Here turn around" she turned Jaune's back to her and adjusted his tie. In moments it rested comfortably around his neck. "Is that better?" she asked with a grin.

Jaune was amazed. A month of bitter, painful and agonizing struggle solved in moments. He looked at Weiss and could have sworn he saw a halo and feathery wings extending out from her back.

"You. Weiss. Are an absolutely amazing Angel" Jaune spoke with near reverence. Perhaps this friendship thing wouldn't be so bad after all? Anyone who could prevent him from choking to death every class was an asset that should be safeguarded. As he was nodding to himself in approval he noticed that Weiss had gained a significant blush and was trying to wave him off. That was odd. Oh shit did he-

"Mr. Fall as nice as that compliment was my class is neither the time nor the place to flirt with your girlfriend" Cynthia gleefully interrupted.

Yup. He'd called her an angel aloud. He'd spoken aloud in a classroom where the only person speaking had been his sister as she taught. Jaune winced as the class as a whole was staring at him in shock. He could've sworn he heard several "awwws" from girls in the class but he wasn't sure.

Glancing over at Weiss he saw her complexion miraculously redden further before ducking behind her textbook. No help from her with this it seemed. She also had given up on telling people they weren't together.

They were just thirteen for Oum's sake!

"I'm sorry Ms. Arc…it _certainly_ won't happen again" Jaune managed to sigh out.

"Good. Now back to what I was saying…" Cynthia turned back to the board seemingly forgetting about the incident. This woman was his third major headache.

Fortunately she was a minor headache compared to the first two.

Spending time with his sister resulted in him having less time to learn more about the city. She was an oddity in that she acknowledged his independence but also wanted to coddle him. Cynthia would regularly pop by his apartment unannounced to visit and would heckle him for the most annoying things.

He feared the day she found the teddy bear stash.

Jaune found solace however in the fact that, if nothing else, his sister did not go back on her word. Not only had she kept his whereabouts from her father but she also maintained professional distance while at Haze. Any onlooker would only see a cordial relationship between the strongest in their class and their combat instructor. All sibling interactions were mercifully restricted to his apartment which seemed to satisfy her desire for bonding for now.

Deciding to tune back into the class he groaned as Cynthia announced a pop-quiz. Recalling that all teachers scaled their test grades a vindictive smirk made its way onto his face. He had just found a way to have fun at the expense of others.

" _Sorry everyone, if I have to go here then I am at least going to completely and utterly destroy every curve"_ he thought to himself happily.

* * *

Weiss Schnee did not think she could call herself an affectionate person. She was cordial with most people but aside from her father and sister there hadn't really been anyone she felt close to.

Then this boy Jaune Fall quite literally smashed his way into her perfect life…via her face.

She assumed she'd go unchallenged upon entering Haze Academy. Her father had backed her training for years and it was never easy. Claiming her seat at the top of the school never should have been a challenge for her. Instead she meets a boy who not only makes it seemingly impossible to be the top but he chooses to be nice instead of competitive and arrogant…like she was.

Her father would be horrified if he knew how she addressed him. It wasn't her fault the handsome boy decided to dress like a nobody when he was clearly on par with her.

Handsome? She blushed slightly at the thought. Now _she_ was even starting to think like the students who paired them together. Weiss wasn't sure when it started but the rumor had grown out of control so fast that even she couldn't stop it. Both she and Jaune had resigned themselves to simply accepting the label for the time being.

Glancing at him as he proceeded to scarf down pancakes while crying tears of joy Weiss wondered what exactly about him made her want to be his friend. Certainly she wanted to get along with him as he was the only other classmate she considered worth her attention. He was also friendly and outgoing in a way that she couldn't be.

The fact that Jaune seemingly daydreamt in every class while still maintaining top marks was definitely one reason she ended being as clingy as she was. Whatever secret or genius methods he used Weiss did not want getting out. The last thing they needed was lesser students thinking they could get an easy pass just because Jaune was a nice person.

As Jaune started choke on the pancakes he was inhaling she rolled her eyes and decided to help him out. Her thoughts on her strange new friend could wait till later.

* * *

 _Five months later_

Jaune let out a sigh as he finally arrived back at his apartment. This was his castle, his bastion of solidarity, OF MANLINESS. He threw his backpack haphazardly by the door before lying down on his couch. Just as he got in comfortable position to nap he heard his scroll ring. With a resigned groan he looked over at who was calling. A smile crept up onto his face when he saw that it was Cinder.

"Hi Mom, what's up?" he greeted casually as he picked up. Greeted by a deadpan stare in response he smiled nervously since she apparently wasn't in the mood for their casual conversation. Before he could amend himself Cinder decided to get down to business.

"Jaune you mentioned that the Schnee heiress attached herself to you. How would you define your relationship at the moment?" okay he did not expect that to be the first thing she asked.

"Well, for the few months we've known each other I think she believes we're pretty good friends. I think a lot of it is because I'm the only one who can actually match her. Speaking of which, I can never thank you enough. The very idea of being as dumb as these kids physically ails me" Jaune responded.

"Well if we never met you'd be dead not dumb" oh wasn't that a lovely thought. "I want you to reciprocate her attachment. Spend more time with the girl, go shopping or whatever comes to mind. Feel free to foster mild friendships with other but the Schnee girl is your largest priority for the next four years understood?" Cinder's request caught Jaune by surprise. Being good school friends with her was easy enough but investing a large amount of time was…painful.

"I, sure Cinder" Jaune responded resignedly. "I have a question though, is there anywhere in Atlas you know of where I can train? I'd rather not have my skills rust while going here".

"Why Jaune, I thought it would be obvious" Cinder drawled with a smile. "The best place to train is somewhere with no safety. Simply take some weekends to leave Atlas and head into the tundra. Surviving against the grimm _and_ elements should be plenty for you". Her sadistic grin implied that this was not a suggestion.

"Right. I don't know why I didn't think about that. Thanks mom!" Jaune replied with genuine thankfulness. His training with Cinder would never be easy but he would grow as he always did.

"You are welcome. Till next time…son" with that she hung up leaving Jaune to his thoughts.

"May as well start this out now I suppose" Jaune grumbled before dialing Weiss' scroll number.

"Jaune? Is that you? Wait no of course that's you. Um, why are you calling?" she sounded flustered. Maybe she wasn't used to having friends outside of school? Well nothing to do but find out Jaune mused to himself.

"Um yeah it's me. I was wondering…I've only been in Atlas for a few months and don't really get out much. Would you mind showing me around to some interesting places?" Jaune hesitantly asked. Why the fuck did that come out so awkwardly?

Oh that's right. He hadn't _hung out_ with anyone in about half his life. Sweet Oum above if he regressed into an immature child because of this he'd spare Cinder the effort and off himself.

"Oh" she sounded surprised. "I-I mean of course I can. It would be no problem at all!" Jaune honestly couldn't tell is she was trying to convince him or herself.

"So…do you want to meet up at the city center? We can walk around and maybe even clothes shop or something" he suggested. Girls liked clothes right? His sisters certainly did.

"Clothes?" Weiss asked with glee. Why did he have a feeling he would regret his suggestion.

* * *

 _6 hours later_

Jaune absolutely hated himself. How on earth he thought suggesting clothes shopping to a rich heiress was a good idea was beyond him. Maybe his intelligence really was starting to decline as he attended Haze.

He had to get out to the tundra at some point and kill something.

"Oh Jaune just wait till we get to the next store you will _love_ the shoes there!" Weiss called out to him from the department store they were in. Turns out there were a lot of underground shopping malls in Atlas that he was unaware of.

The malls were a fascinating sight to Jaune initially. There were bright lights, people of all sorts moving leisurely from place to place; hundreds of stores and it was all clean and properly taken care of despite the traffic.

They were also loaded to the brim with clothes stores perfect for Weiss to spend however much she had.

"Uh Weiss maybe we should do something besides a clothes store for now? Since we've been doing this for…" he glanced at his scroll for the time "five of the six hours we've been out". The first hour had resulted in him learning a fair bit about the capital and its major landmarks and sectors. The last five had been far less productive aside from Weiss picking out some clothing for him.

He would certainly never complain about a rich girl buying him stylish duds. Having said rich girl lob off _forty-five_ bags of purchases to her two bodyguards and having them place them in her car however? That made even him pity the poor souls.

"Oh I suppose we can end it here for today" she responded. Today? There were going to be repeats?!

"Yeah um sounds good. I'll grab my bags from the car and head on home then" Jaune said in as friendly of a manner as possible.

"What?" Weiss tilted her head as she was confused. "I won't have a friend of mine carry his five bags home by himself. We'll drive you home, don't worry about it I already had daddy look up where you live so I'll be telling them where to go" she explained calmly.

Weiss knew where he lived. Weiss had asked her _father_ about a boy's living arrangements. A boy the entire school shipped her with.

" _I'm so screwed"_ Jaune thought to himself with horror even as he followed her into the back of the car. Calling it a limo a car was a bit insulting Jaune thought to himself as he leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. After several minutes of peaceful silence between himself and Weiss he felt something on his shoulder. Opening his eyes he glanced to his right and saw Weiss fast asleep as she lay on his shoulder.

Now that she was quiet he noticed things about her he normally wouldn't. The night lights of the city shone on her hair in a myriad of colors. Unlike Cinder or himself she didn't give off nearly as much of a presence when relaxed. On the contrary, Weiss was quite light as she rested on him, almost frail. What he noticed the most was her peaceful and content expression.

This was how she should have looked he realized. Looking back at all their interactions he discovered that she'd been putting on a front, a mask. There was always a small amount of stress or worry when together. It wasn't the largest mask but he still hadn't noticed.

She was as nervous of trying to be his friend as he was of being hers. What if she had other things to worry about as well? Being an heiress of the richest company in Remnant could not have been an entirely pleasant childhood.

Jaune grimaced he figured out why Cinder wanted him to get closer to Weiss. It was to teach him a lesson in humility. Cinder would have likely had Weiss pegged in a day of interacting. It had taken him months of conversation, a day of hanging out and no small amount of luck that she'd fallen asleep and put herself in a vulnerable position.

Despite his combat prowess it appeared he had a long way to go in other areas of his life. Content with having learned something he closed his eyes and let himself join Weiss in sleeping. The bodyguards could wake him when he got back to his apartment.

* * *

Winter Schnee was the older sister of Weiss Schnee. She had the distinctive white hair and light blue eyes that all Schnee's had. Unlike her younger sister however she wore her hair in a bun with a fringe framing the right side of her face. She was currently wearing her Atlas specialist uniform which consisted of a white and blue vest, grey greaves over white pants and a white overcoat. Her coat had been clasped at the neck with a red gem.

Winter had also just arrived home for vacation. When she'd been unable to find her beloved younger sister she had asked her father about her whereabouts. To say that she was shocked when finding out that Weiss was out on a shopping trip with a _boy_ was an understatement. That said boy was apparently her friend and the current holder of top spot in their class did not mollify her in the slightest.

Her sister was too young to be interested in boys! Thus Winter had taken it upon herself to wait outside their home to wait for her sister to come home and give her advice on dealing with boys her age.

The Schnee home itself was a lavish mansion. Three stories high, forty-thousand square feet of surface area and an exterior of marble alongside obsidian colored stone presented an imposing building in the icy continent. The center of the home was imposing with marble columns framing a large door underneath an even larger circular window. The building extended outward into two large wings from its center. The left wing ended with a large gazebo and the right wing with what appeared to be sizeable green house of all things.

The mansion itself was located on the north-east end of Atlas. It was separated by a large expanse of land from the rest of the city. The property covered ten square kilometers and the mansion was located in the center. Walden Schnee took no limits to his safety and had guards located in outposts in two kilometer intervals in each of the cardinal directions from his home. That was not including the Atlas military personnel patrolling the grounds day and night courtesy of James Ironwood.

Business associates of Walden Schnee simply called it Schnee Castle since it seemed fitting.

Winter smiled to herself as she watched the black limo undoubtedly containing her sister pull in front of their home. As she was about to walk forward she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she quirked an eyebrow at her father who was holding her back with a smile on her face.

"Let your sister at least have some room to breathe before you choose to smother her Winter" her father remarked with a smile. Sighing she watched as her sister's bodyguards, Atlas soldiers, for the day left the vehicle and opened the back of the car. One of the soldiers peeked into the car. Weiss must have fallen asleep again Winter mused. She was proven wrong as a voice distinctly _not_ that of her sister's came from the vehicle.

"What do you mean I'm at Weiss's house?! What do you mean she never told you where I actually live?!" the male voice cried out in what sounded close to horror. "Oh! Hey good morning there Weiss! You..uh…have a good nap?" the source of the voice was made visible courtesy of a feminine shriek followed by a blonde boy being shoved out the side of the vehicle into the snow. Weiss herself walked out of the vehicle and mildly glared at the boy at the ground.

"Why was I sleeping with you?" she yelled as she pointed at the boy.

"WEISS!" Winter shouted in horror. What had happened to her pure younger sister? Why was she sleeping with boys at the age of thirteen? A tear slipped out of her right eye before she furiously rubbed it away. The blond boy finally noticed her and her father as he turned to the sound of her shout and paled.

"WINTER!" her sister exclaimed in an odd mixture of surprise and terror.

"I think…" Walden finally spoke up while hesitating "we should all retire inside before we talk about anything that may have…developed between you and your friend Weiss". It was a rare day indeed when her father sounded awkward.

The group gathered together inside the main hall of the building. There was a staircase in the center which branched out into two more which would allow individuals to reach the second floor of the building. On Jaune's left and right were two more long hallways going on for a significant distance. Across from the front door there was yet _another_ door which led to what appeared to be a sitting room.

Which one should he run to in order to avoid being gutted?

Jaune had met many individuals throughout his life. He'd seen many overprotective fathers would rip apart anyone who they thought was a threat to their daughter. As such, the moment they stepped into the building he rapidly gave out his explanation as to how both Weiss and he fell asleep in the back of the car. That he made sure to mention specifically that it was Weiss who _forgot_ to mention his address only helped his case more.

"Well Jaune, I think I understand and I'm not upset. Unfortunately I cannot let you go home however as a winter storm will be arriving soon and I am unable to put neither you nor others driving you in danger." Walden said calmly as he ignored the sound protest from his eldest daughter.

" _Okay that's the dad taken care of, now for the older sister who's trying to subtly burn a hole in me with her glare"_ Jaune thought to himself. He understood where she was coming from however so he decided to address it outright. Turning around to face the sisters he walked up to Winter and stuck his hand out to shake. "It's an honor to meet you Winter. Weiss mentioned that she had an amazing sister in the Atlas specialists and I'd love to hear of your times at Haze and Atlas Academy". Okay he was polite, he'd put on just a tad bit of charm. Judging by the look of surprise on her face he was doing alright.

"Oh, um, yes pleasure to meet you…Jaune was it?" Winter responded slightly put off. She realized she may have jump to conclusions earlier and was mildly embarrassed at her behavior. The boy-Jaune had explained his actions contritely, been polite and seemed nice enough. Her sister on the other hand… "Weiss how could you forget something as important as someone's address? Especially since father went to the trouble of finding it out for you?"

Nobody noticed Jaune's left eye suddenly gain a twitch.

"Well it's not like I planned to fall asleep! It just sort of…happened?" Weiss responded shyly. The elder sister merely gave a roll of her eyes before giving her a hug. It was at this point the Schnee patriarch decided to speak up.

"So Jaune, Weiss tells me you are the top student at the moment but you seem bored correct?" Walden smiled as Jaune cautiously responded in affirmative. "Well how about this, while my two daughters catch up the two of us have a visit to my office and chat? I have several books that involve studies in the sciences such as physics and biology. Those subjects aren't taught until later in Atlas academy but could be interesting for you to look into.

Something new for him to learn that wouldn't leave him bored to tears? Never let it be said Jaune was someone to pass up a good opportunity. Still he couldn't just ditch Weiss so he'd have to be diplomatic.

"Sounds good to me sir" he turned around to address Weiss with a smile "Let's talk more later on, okay Weiss?" She nodded with polite smile and walked off with her sister down the east wing of the building. Turning back around he started to follow the eldest Schnee down the west wing as he came to appreciate a fact.

He, Jaune Fall, was about to speak one on one with the man in charge of the largest dust company in the world. There was no small amount of nerves as they reached a door and stepped into the room. The walls were lined with bookshelves bursting as they struggled to contain all the books shoved inside. In the center of the room was a coffee table with a small brown leather couch on each side. On top of the coffee table was a pitcher of what appeared to be green tea and a stack of cups. A fireplace off to the side was roaring which warmed up the room and calmed Jaune down. He took a seat on the opposite couch from Walden and decided to just relax. He'd be polite, earnest for knowledge and a seemingly good friend for Weiss.

"Say Jaune, do you like fishing?" Walden asked suddenly.

What? No threats regarding his daughter? No questioning his academics? Fishing?

"I, I could say I enjoy fishing. My mother taught me how while we went camping and I'd always found it peaceful" while not a lie he left out the fact that if he didn't catch any fish he'd be going hungry that night. It was more of a survival tactic than recreation but he didn't need to know that. Judging by how Weiss' father's eyes lit up he could see he'd done something right.

"Good, good man. Any real man has to learn fishing at some point. Now how about boxing? Do you drink your coffee black? Do you lift weights?" What the hell was this line of questioning?

"I've never had time to get into boxing but I know some hand to hand combat. My mother refused to let me have coffee since she believes that anyone who relies on a stimulant is…lacking. I do exercise and lift but only enough to gain strength without damaging my muscles. As I'm still growing I'd prefer not to stunt my development in any way" were those acceptable responses? Oum he hoped so. He'd managed to give truthful answers so far which was nice at least. He reached over to the table and poured himself some tea as Walden seemed to go into deep thought.

"Hmmm, okay I approve. You have permission to date my daughter. Admittedly it may be soon as you've only known each other a for about half a year but I give my blessings" Walden said as a tears streamed down his eyes.

He had to really try not to spit his tea out. Not spitting his tea out may have been the single hardest thing Jaune did in his life.

"SIR" Jaune spluttered as he tried to think coherently "I'm not thinking of dating Weiss!"

"What? Is my dear Weiss not good enough for you?" the man's expression turned dangerous and Jaune decided to hell with it. He'd do whatever he could to not leave this office in a body bag.

"NO! Your daughter is beautiful! Radiant! Astonishing!" Jaune felt his self-respect wither away at every word that left his lips. "In fact it's the opposite, I feel as if I'm not worthy enough to date someone as lovely as your daughter. There is also the fact that we're both incredibly young, haven't known each other long and are already being shipped together by our peers" The last bit drew a raised eyebrow from Walden but he wasn't done subjecting himself to this yet, "Also while your approval would be nice it's your daughter's that matters more sir and I don't know if she would say yes!". There. He fucking did it. He threw himself under the bus as hard as he possibly could.

"I like you very much, few young men would have the courage to say what you did _son_ " Walden commented. Jaune was mortified at the emphasis of the word son. For the love of all that is holy- "I've actually looked into you. Your mother Miss Fall is quite an accomplished huntress and even a professor at Haven's hunter academy. You've been in her company as she met several of my companions actually and they all had glowing comments regarding your positive demeanor. You are obviously intelligent to be bored at Haze which is certainly rigorous. James even tells me you get along with all of your classmates." James? Did he mean General Ironwood? HOW MUCH PULL DID THIS MAN HAVE?

Oh right. Walden Schnee. Duh.

"Um Sir-?" Jaune started only to have a hand held up to silence him.

"Let me finish first. I was genuinely curious as to who could beat my Weiss. It would be one thing to find someone better from another hunter academy but in the pre-hunter academies? I didn't expect it to happen. At first it was simple curiosity" Walden grimaced as he continued "but then I noticed Weiss change over the past two months".

"Change? I don't think I understand Mr. Schnee. Sure Weiss was and I were a bit…stand offish initially but we warmed up to each other fairly quickly" Jaune wondered where on earth this discussion was going. He may have also been reeling from the fact that he'd been looked into extensively. Thank goodness this man hadn't found out about his original roots, which would have caused a problem.

"Well Weiss has never really gotten along with those her age, it's partially my fault but the fact remains. So imagine my surprise when she tells me excitedly, on her first day back from Haze all about you. This wasn't a one-time thing by the way. I've learned two things over the past two months especially. First, my daughter is falling for you quite quickly. The second is that you are an intelligent individual who will be able to figure that out sooner or later. So I wanted to talk to you first and see what kind of person you are."

Weiss was falling for him? Wait, no, bigger problem here. Walden Schnee looked into his records, past and connections all because Weiss was for falling for him?

" _I just told him I reciprocate his daughters growing feelings"_ he decided it would be best to dig some more while he was at it. He was too frazzled to come up with an appropriate response right now. "So…where do we go from here? Also why did you ask me those…odd questions earlier?"

"Well I think it's simple Jaune, you don't mind if I call you Jaune do you?" Jaune could do nothing but shake his head. What about this was simple? "Good, you come from a good background, you seem like a nice young man and you share my hobby of fishing! We'll have to work on the boxing but I think you'd make for a fine son-in-law one day if raised right!"

Why he thought raising tea to his lips was a good idea Jaune would never know. What he did know is that it took evert fiber of his being to not simply hurl the damn thing at this man.

"While I…appreciate your consideration and blessings, I still haven't talked to Weiss about it. Nor my mother would be fascinated to hear about this." He had to talk to Cinder. This was in way over his head.

"Oh Jaune do you really think I would have had this conversation with you _without_ consulting your mother?" Walden asked amusedly.

His brain ground to a halt. What did he just say?

"You…you wouldn't be offended if I called my mother, right?" he opened his scroll to find a text waiting for him. From Cinder.

With a feeling of dread Jaune opened the text only to see his mother mentioning the conversation. It must have arrived while he was asleep. There was no way he would have missed this otherwise.

 _Dear Jaune imagine my surprise when Walden Schnee of all people decided to_ personally _call me. He called to talk about the possibility of marriage between you and his daughter which caught even me off guard. I don't know what you did to impress him but whatever it is keep to it. You've exceeded my expectations already of what I sent you to Atlas for. I am proud of you. I sent you to form connections over a four year period of time. Instead you gain interest of the head of the Schnee Dust Corporation within your first year. Admittedly the man was somewhat pretentious with his way of mentioning how he looked into both your and my background but it was excusable given the circumstances. I leave the decision of your marriage up to you. It is not my choice to make. To show my appreciation for your rapid progress I am sending you a gift that I was saving for your graduation from Haze. You have done well son, keep the connection building going._

Jaune had no idea how to feel. On one hand he'd made Cinder proud and the elation he felt was also dampened by the fact that it was _all_ by accident. He didn't mean to make the Schnee heiress fall for him. He certainly didn't plan on having her father look into both his and Cinder's backgrounds apparently.

He also knew what Cinder would want him to do.

"Are you okay Jaune? I understand that this is a lot to think about. You don't have to answer me right now if you don't wish to" Walden proposed. He understood that he had just dumped a significant amount of information on the boy but how he handled it would prove his true worth to him. If he broke down here, he'd call it all off. Jaune would simply have been too weak for him to approve of. He was pleasantly surprised when Jaune met him with a steely glare of all things.

"I don't approve of the level of manipulation you put into this…that being said I can understand why. You want what's best for Weiss and I can't fault you for it." Jaune truly did understand where he was coming from. That did not mean he couldn't display some of his anger to the man. That his "righteous anger" would only solidify his mask was a positive. "Personally, I'm grateful for you telling me about how you _think_ Weiss feels. I won't object to being your son-in-law BUT if Weiss doesn't reciprocate my feelings I won't go ahead with it" he finished breathing heavily.

If Weiss didn't have feelings for him, he'd still have the respect of Walden Schnee for honoring his feelings. If she did…well Cinder would be over the moon. An engagement into the Schnee family would allow him access to damn near anywhere in Atlas.

Maybe one day he'd grow to accept it. He had years right?

"Of course Jaune. I won't force you or my daughter into anything. If my daughter _does_ accept dating you however I will be telling her you are engaged. It will be announced as well, I refuse to allow for anyone to think that a Schnee heiress could do anything such as casual dating. That would simply be undignified."

Now that caught Jaune by surprise. Despite his odd approach, the man did actually have a fair bit of conceit! Then again, that might be why he wanted an ideal son-in-law too. The man was a perfectionist. Walden may care for his daughter significantly, but he clearly cared about his reputation almost as much. Jaune had also finally figured out what he looked like to the man.

He appeared as highly intelligent, charismatic young man from a fairly prominent background. If he was an ordinary person this man wouldn't actually care about Weiss' feelings. The thought stirred a small anger in him before he stifled it. Now that he finally had a good handle on the man, he could maneuver easier.

His manipulations would have to wait however. It was time to face the music.

"So…you distract Winter while I talk to Weiss?" there was no way in hell was he saying anything to Weiss within that sister's hearing range.

Actually, wouldn't she become his sister-in-law. Oum he hated himself sometimes.

" _The things I do to make you proud mom"_ he thought to himself.

"Of course Jaune, I'll give you two the privacy you need" Walden chortled while reaching across the table to pat him on the shoulder. The man gave him a conspiratorial wink that made him honestly consider simply killing the man right there before going on the run.

"Thanks…pops" Jaune tested out. Walden's grin could have blinded a fully grown nevermore with how damn bright it was.

The temptation to kill the man only grew stronger. It only grew further as he realized this would mean more shopping trips.

Oum save him.


	7. Chapter 7 - New Year's

**AN: Sorry about the delay on this chapter everyone! My desktop's power supply is toast so I had to type this in my college's library XD**

 **Crazyassbitch: I do intend on developing the relationship at a natural pace but since I skip months it might seem fast, I'm happy that you enjoyed this however!**

 **Abrams1559: As interesting as Medusa's vectors are I've got something different in mind for his power development. I can promise you'll enjoy it though ;D**

 **Thanks again everyone for the positive reviews! All of you light up my day with them and make me incredibly happy that I can write for you all! Without further ado: enjoy the new chapter!**

Year 13X9 NRE

Jaune Fall groaned as he heard a knocking at his apartment door. A glance at his clock displayed the time as seven am. On a Saturday.

"Who the hell…" Jaune trailed off as he swung out of bed while grabbing teddy bear number eighty-five. Said teddy bear flew one foot forward before falling harmlessly against the ground. Still in a daze, he failed to grasp that he'd fallen asleep in his boxers as he opened his door.

"Good mo-JAUNE!" came the exclamation of shock from one General Ironwood. Without even thinking about it Jaune snapped into a salute before grimacing.

"So General…why are you here today?" being greeted by military wasn't unusual anymore. Since his engagement to Weiss both Walden and Ironwood insisted on protection. Typically they were disguised soldiers but for the general to show up? Something must be special today.

"Well Jaune we've caught wind of the possibility of someone meaning you harm to get to the Schnee's." Oh, well that could be a problem. "Since its new year's eve we figure they mean to send a message of some sort. Due to this, we're having you moved to Schnee mansion now instead of later for the gala."

Jaune gave him a blank stare before sighing and walking back inside. He slipped on a pair of black dress shoes and socks, a black dress shirt and a grey overcoat for his look today. Looking at himself in the mirror he couldn't help but grin. Damn did he look good. He'd have Weiss do his grey tie later and simply stuffed it inside his coat pocket. It might have been the fact that it was New Year's Eve but he couldn't help but reminisce about the engagement talk with Weiss.

 _-flashback -_

" _Waitwaitwaitwaitwait what?" Weiss had her mouth agape as she stared at him. He honestly couldn't blame her. He must have given Declan that exact same look earlier._

" _Our parent's want us engaged. I told your father that I'd accept if you did" here came the tough part. "I also…really like you Weiss" Jaune mumbled the last part. Oh how he hated acting like a shy teenager in love. Sure he was a teenager and yeah Weiss was pretty and all, but damn it he did not want to be engaged._

 _Was Weiss' face turning red? Was she smiling? Dear Oum above Walden was right about her liking him back!_

" _I…I like you too. I_ do _think it's early for us to be engaged" yes, yes don't agree! "…but I think we'll get to know each other even better this way. Also both of our parents agree so I'll say yes" she finished off. Her reasoning did genuinely surprise Jaune somewhat. It was true that this would inevitably end up with him spending more time with her but he didn't realize she wanted to spend even_ more _time with him after the shopping trip._

 _When the hell was a guy supposed to get his training in?!_

 _-Flashback end-_

Fortunately he did still manage to get training in during the past three months. Sporadic trips outside the walls and mock-fights against Winter Schnee had done wonders for his improvement.

Never let it be said that Atlas Specialists knew how to go easy on teenagers.

Jaune decided against keeping the general waiting and left his apartment after placing his knives inside his dress pant pockets.

"So General Ironwood, I'm aware that the gala is typically reserved for more…elite members of society. Despite being engage to Weiss should I expect any animosity?" he asked to be prepared. When their engagement was first made public news they had become a near celebrity couple overnight in Atlas. The information was met with a variety of reactions but the ones that Jaune noticed the most were disdain. His fellow students knew of his excellence and weren't against it, other adults however wondered how someone not from an aristocratic background could be engaged with a Schnee.

It reached a point where he'd had to covertly assassinate one of the more outspoken members purely because he was being a pest. He hadn't been able to sneak out of the city for weeks due to increased security but he'd say it was worth it. That he'd framed _another_ outspoken aristocrat to take the fall only increased his glee.

His perpetual good mood during a time of crisis had ironically been seen as a positive thing since it helped his fellow students keep their cool.

"I don't believe you'll have to deal with that much, if at all. There isn't a person alive in Atlas that would question Walden's choice in son-in-law in his own house" Ironwood responded with a smirk.

"No, I suppose that would be rather unintelligent" drawled Jaune as he entered into a heavily armored limo with the General. Upon entering he opted to close his eyes and meditate before heading over. The fact that this cut Ironwood off from making small talk that they both found inane only helped.

He'd been in Atlas for just over ten months and it honestly felt nice. If there was one thing that Jaune missed while traveling with Cinder it was a home. His apartment had become the only place he'd lived in this long besides his old home before he ran away. He had managed to penetrate and make connections with various politicians, teachers and military members due to his reputation as Atlas' next rising star.

Excellent grades and combat skills, sociable and engaged to a Schnee? Yeah he could understand why even at the young age of fourteen he attracted a lot of attention.

Thank Oum that he'd managed to convince Weiss to keep his birthday party to just her family and him. She'd been upset that she couldn't throw him a bigger one and that Cinder wasn't coming so he'd had to come up with an excuse. He'd learned that day that Weiss, like any other girl her age, would cave under the statement of "I don't want to spend my birthday with anyone but you". He was forever thankful that his fiancée was strong and intelligent by most standards. While he wouldn't go as far as to say he liked her a lot, he could feel himself warming up to the girl and didn't particularly mind.

Damn teenage hormones.

Jaune sighed and decided he'd rather just nap till they arrived.

* * *

Weiss Schnee was not someone who enjoyed getting up in the morning. Especially on weekends. When her sister chose to mention that her fiancée was coming over however? That was different. Certainly not because she was happy to see him of course. Getting out of bed she was dressed in a light blue nightgown with her hair down. She smiled softly at the thought of seeing Jaune again and spending the day with him. When Weiss first agreed to the engagement she had some doubts but had agreed because she was infatuated with him.

The infatuation hadn't decreased, but the reasoning behind it had improved. After spending three months getting to know Jaune she'd learned some interesting things about him. He was an arrogant twat. There was no denying his skills, fighting semi-decently against Winter twice a week was pretty impressive, his humility and even his genial manner but there was an underlying arrogance to his attitude. Jaune also had incredible memory. He'd remember things about others that she'd forget and would use the information to help them.

Weiss had also found out a month ago that he was a runaway. That it happened because of a surprise she planned was amusing.

 _-flashback-_

 _Weiss had a delighted smile on her face as her bodyguard finally managed to pick the lock to Jaune's apartment. Why was she having a trained member of the Atlas military help her break into her fiancé's apartment? She wanted to surprise him by waking him up to spend the day with her instead of simply calling him via scroll again._

" _Alright, it's open. Please don't mention to your father or the general that I helped with this." She'd used the almighty powers of her puppy dog eyes and constant nagging to eventually convince him. The reminder that Jaune could sometimes be a sarcastic ass to her bodyguards only helped out._

" _No problem, thanks again!" Weiss stated and then slowly crept into the apartment. She'd only been inside once before and it hadn't seemed to change. There were bare essentials and the whole place was plain, uninteresting. How did someone so interesting live somewhere so boring? Glancing about again she pushed it from her mind as she slowly pushed open the bedroom door._

" _There you are" Weiss whispered softly. She couldn't see anything but the back of his head but there was no mistaking that blond mop of hair. Deciding to wake him up in style she formed a glyph in front of her and sent out a torrent of wind to rip his covers off him._

 _Her eyes widened in shock as Jaune's eyes snapped open and he launched himself at her. Weiss found herself struggling to breathe as she was slammed into the wall and his forearm blocked her airways. Jaune's other arm was on her chest pinning her to the wall. What she noticed the most were his eyes. All of the warmth and affection she was used to seeing was gone, replaced by unfeeling cold blue._

 _She'd never been scared of Jaune before._

" _J-jaune!" Weiss managed to squeak out. He blinked as his eyes were clouded with confusion, realization then horror as he leapt back. While she regained her breath she noticed that this was the first time she saw her fiancé shirtless, and that there was a massive scar running from his shoulder to his hip._

" _It was from a hunting trip with my dad" damn she must have been staring._

" _Mr. Fall?" Weiss realized that while she knew of Jaune's mother she never asked about his dad. Seeing him visibly wince meant that he must not have meant to say that._

 _Perhaps being woken up like that was more shocking than she realized._

" _Well…ah fuck it. It was going to come up sooner or later. I'd rather tell you than have you find out from someone else down the line. Cinder's not my real mom, I ran away from my real parents."_

 _-end flashback-_

That he'd run away from home to get stronger was something she genuinely admired Jaune for. Granted it was dumb at his age, but he'd survived. He was arrogant, kind, scary and sweet all in one package.

A knocking at the door broke Weiss from her thoughts. Assuming it was Winter she walked over and swung the door open.

"Hey Weiss" Jaune simply stood there with a smile. It was his smile widening as his eyes roamed her form that alerted her.

She'd answered in nothing but her nightgown. As her face flushed she reached out to slam the door shut only to be interrupted by Jaune placing a hand on her cheek.

" _what, wait ,why?"_ they'd hugged before and held hands but this was new territory. Oh Oum above she could feel her face burning red as she struggled to maintain eye contact.

"You look lovely but I think you'll need more clothing for the ball later this evening. I'll meet you downstairs for breakfast" with that Jaune leaned in, placed a small kiss on her forehead and walked away.

What the FU-

* * *

 _10 hours later_

Jaune smiled to himself as he read a book on physics on a sinfully comfortable couch in Walden's office. In peace. Without Weiss bugging him to go shopping. Or fighting. Or really anything.

He'd been left free all day to read Walden's books without interruption.

"I'm a fucking genius" he complimented himself. Who would've thought that a simple kiss on the forehead would make Weiss blush, stammer and avoid him all throughout breakfast AND lunch. He hadn't planned on the kiss. Weiss had just looked so damn adorable that he couldn't help himself, plus they were engaged, some physical contact was expected right?

"Well Mr. Genius, care to tell me why my sister seems to be avoiding you like the plague?" tilting his head back he saw an amused Winter Schnee looking down at him.

"Well I complimented her, kissed her forehead, and now she's super embarrassed about it. She'll come around though" Jaune replied casually. He couldn't help but chuckle as Winter sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Winter had become a measuring rod for him. While he couldn't beat her yet he swore he would by the time he finished Haze Academy. Being able to beat an Atlas Specialist at the age of 17? Cinder would be pleased.

"Okay then, she should be finishing up changing into her dress for the evening…" the ball was an entire hour away. He would never understand women. "…so could you please talk to her? If she looks uncomfortable around you during the ball, people will talk" Winter explained. Ah so that was it.

Damn, he was just getting to the good part too! Putting the book down with a sigh he rose and followed Winter out of the office. Jaune continued walking through the mansion noting how the setting sun reflected off the furniture and walls. If he had to use a word to describe the mansion at this hour he'd use peaceful. It was similar to his apartment in that regard. Arriving at Weiss' bedroom door he lightly rapped his fingers against it.

"Who is it?" he heard Weiss' voice call out from inside. Oh good, she'd learned something.

"It's me, Jaune, the fiancé you've been hiding from" he called back. He smirked as the door slammed open and we was met with a fierce glare from Weiss. Taunts would always work with her. His smirk died as he took in her appearance.

Weiss was dressed in strapless light blue gown that hugged her developing figure. Trailing down the right side of the dress were snowflake patterns that shimmered lightly. Her hair was the only thing unchanged, remaining in its elegant ponytail but somehow seemed to glow with the dress.

"Jaune. Are you okay?" he heard Weiss ask as she placed on hand on his cheek to gain his attention.

"Y-yeah. I just seem to be noticing you a lot more today" what the hell kind of reply was that? Before Jaune could mentally berate himself Weiss started to giggle. He relaxed and decided to address his earlier actions. "Listen Weiss, if I made you uncomfortable earlier I'm sorry" like hell he was "I didn't plan on kissing you anything I swear. You just looked really c-cute and I couldn't help myself" he finished honestly. Did he just honestly use the word cute? Cinder must never find out.

"Oh, um it's okay. We're engaged after all! I'm sorry for avoiding you too, I just wasn't sure how to react" Weiss replied nervously while twirling her pony tail in her hands. An odd expression flitted across her face before she asked "So…if you thought I looked good earlier and kissed me? Do you want to kiss me now?"

"Yes" he replied instantly.

" _Wait, why the FUCK did I say that? Well I do but now she'll think I'm being too pushy or something like that!"_ Jaune was more than a little horrified with himself. Twice in one day he'd lost his self-control around Weiss. Was it hormones, was it the small amount of affection he had for her? Regardless of what it was it could **not** go on. Preparing to take his words back he found himself unable to speak.

Weiss had wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his.

Jaune closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer. He pressed his lips back to hers to relish the feeling. He didn't know how long they were there but it felt like an eternity to him. This gentle sensation of her body and lips on his was new, exciting and pleasing in a way that killing and fighting could not match. As they broke for air he glanced down at Weiss who was staring back at him.

He could see nothing but adoration in those eyes, it honestly unsettled him. Jaune was used to manipulating, stealing and killing. The only person who truly showed him affection was Cinder. Had he actually done anything for Weiss besides just attempt to be a good fiancé?

" _I don't get it"_ he thought to himself.

"Weiss, I" he started to say only to get a finger put on his lips. Okay, so it wasn't his turn to talk.

"To be honest, I've been wanting to kiss you for a while so I'm not mad. That being said I don't want others seeing us kissing, can we only do this when it's just us?" she asked.

"I think that would be for the best. I'd rather not have Winter coming after me out of the arena" he quipped.

As they both laughed he couldn't help but notice that he was _still_ holding onto Weiss. It felt…nice. Perhaps this whole engagement thing could work out after all.

* * *

 _3 hours later_

Okay the engagement was nice and all but dear Oum in heaven this party sucked. It was only Weiss hanging onto his right arm as they conversed with politicians and politicians and politicians…

He was going to kill something this week.

"Psst Weiss, how many more people are going to greet us?" thankfully there seemed to be a break in the greetings so he finally had another chance to talk with just Weiss.

"It's about nine pm and the party goes till eleven. I'd just wait it out to be honest." Was he hearing things or did even Weiss sound tired?

With a sigh that was partly resignation and partly despair Jaune glanced around the dining room and decided to appreciate the scenery. The party had been hosted on the first floor of the Schnee mansion's left wing. He was currently loitering off to one side with Weiss. The wing was decorated more than usual, crystal and ice decorations seemingly everywhere he looked. While aware of how needlessly large the Schnee mansion was, the sheer amount of people that were in this one wing reinforced the fact to him. According to Weiss there were just over two hundred politicians, aristocrats and important military figures present.

"I see my si-I mean Ms. Arc. Let's go say hi Weiss" finally someone they both liked. Ever since he told Weiss about his heritage she'd pretty much adopted Cynthia as another older sister.

"Ms. Arc!" Weiss called out excitedly as she all but dragged an amused Jaune over.

"Mr. Fall, Ms. Schnee! How are you two this evening?" she asked formally. He supposed any normal conversations would have to wait till they had privacy. Was it just him or did she look mildly uncomfortable?

"We're fantastic Ms. Arc!" Weiss all but gushed. Her eyes all but said they would be talking about the kiss later. "It's been a great day with my fiancé so far. How has your day been?"

"Um It's been alright" she replied distractedly while looking around. What was Cynthia doing? As he turned his head to look behind him Cynthia stepped around him into his line of vision.

"Cynthia…is everything actually alright?" he whispered. Weiss leaned in to hear her response as well. This behavior was so fundamentally different from his usually composed sister he couldn't help but be confused.

"Not exactly…under more than a little bit of pressure General Ironwood apparently decided to bring my father without mentioning it to Mr. Schnee. Personally, I think he wants to also meet a certain adolescent celebrity couple" she responded with a grimace.

His father. Declan Arc. Was in the building.

Okay he knew how Declan found out. He'd have to be deaf, blind and dumb to not have heard of the engagement of a Schnee with all the pomp the announcement had made. Why was he here though?

"Cynthia dear, do please let me meet your _students_ " a voice called out behind her. Before she could move to the side a man stepped around her. Blond hair check. Brown eyes check. Beard of legend check. He may have been in an expensive suit and tie, but there was no mistaking Declan Arc or the anger in his eyes. "It's nice to see you Jaune".

"…Likewise" Jaune responded after a moment's hesitation. This was unexpected but he couldn't let his father cause a scene here and undermine his work. "Perhaps we should have a private conversation in the backyard? Weiss, do inform your sister as to my location." Without waiting for a response he untangles his arm from Weiss' and walked off with Declan at his side.

"That was a fairly mature move on your part there Jaune" Declan commented quietly. "I wouldn't really expect it from a typical runaway. By the way I've already had a pleasant conversation with my old friend James and your sister."

"Find out anything interesting?" Jaune asked back as he pushed open the door leading outside. He closed the door behind him and Declan…then proceeded to jump twenty feet away from his father with the aid of his semblance.

" _It would probably be best to keep some distance"_ he mused.

"That jump I suppose is one place I can start" Declan replied amusedly. "Imagine my surprise when my runaway son turns up engaged to a Schnee heiress. I then call my old friend James since he must have known. I find out you have connections everywhere and are apparently well above the rest of your class Mr. Fall".

"Indeed Mr. Arc" Jaune simply responded. "Why are you here? You must be aware that you can neither take me back nor give me motivation to come back?"

"Oh I have no desire to do either. You may not be my son anymore but I am proud of you." Well this was a surprise. "I'm here to personally see the fruits of your labor however." Declan slid his right sleeve up to reveal a cyan blue watch. He pressed a combination of buttons on it and then slid his sleeve back down.

Wait? Wasn't that what his dad did when-

Jaune watched mortified as an azure axe shot itself from inside the house, through a window, into his father's arms. Before he could think to ready his weapons both he and Declan found themselves surrounded by Atlas military with weapons trained on them. From a side door he saw the three living Schnee's, his sister and Ironwood step out of the building.

"Declan Arc, I'd put that weapon down if I were you" Ironwood stated. The name seemed to generate whispers from guests nearby. Damn it all to hell, he did not want them finding out he used to be an Arc.

"It's okay General" Jaune interrupted. "Declan here simply wanted to see some of my bladework and I volunteered, perhaps afterwards we could talk pops?" he directed the last bit of the question at Walden. He wouldn't mind filling in Walden and Winter about his actual heritage, the peanut gallery however? Not so much. Turning back to Declan he was surprised as he saw a faint amount of anger renewed. Oh right, he called Walden pops. Oops.

"Jaune" he turned his head to see Winter speaking to him. "I placed your weapons in the launching system in our training room earlier, check your scroll and you should be able to access them". Keeping one eye on Declan, he pulled out his scroll and sure enough he had a message enabling to fetch his weapons. Typing in the predetermined password he didn't have to wait long as a white capsule slightly larger than his torso landed in front of him. As he opened it he smiled as he saw his engagement/congratulatory gift from Cinder.

Inside was a black and silver bow and quiver. The quiver was empty at the moment as he hadn't made use of the range function of his weapon lately. The bow was fashioned in a similar manner to his mother's. It was made of two twin blades that curved inwards slightly. The handles on blades were black with silver highlights on the sides. The blades themselves were slightly longer than his arms and extended over his knuckles as a guard. According to Cinder she'd taken the traditional Sabre design and modified it to be more offensive, he sure as hell had no complaints.

"So I'm ready now, are you?" Jaune asked. He loosely held both weapons at his side, looking to all the world as if he didn't care that he was about to enter a fight.

Instead of answering Declan charged Jaune, jumped into the air and dove down with his axe toward Jaune's skull…to hit nothing but snow.

"Come on! You gotta do better than that!" Jaune taunted condescendingly from two feet to his left. Declan wasn't slow. On the contrary, the man was very fast, but he hadn't trained against Declan. Cinder and Winter were both fighters who relied on speed, training against them had resulted in his own speed almost matching the mans while lightly using his semblance on himself. His confidence came from the fact that the man had very visibly telegraphed his move, making it quite easy to evade.

Jaune charged Declan and jumped over and behind the man when he swung out. Turning around, he attempted to slash his back with the blade in his left hand only to have it miss as his opponent jumped forward and rolled. Deciding to try a head on attack he jumped straight at Declan and swung down with both blades. As his blades locked with the axe Jaune realized something very important.

His father was stupidly strong. That strength was not only located in the upper body either.

He gritted his teeth as he found himself flying through the air via a kick to his sternum. Performing a backflip he decided to reassess the fight. Aside from his decision to charge straight on fighting through dodging was working out alright. He couldn't show off his semblance due to Cinder's orders so ranged tactics were out of the question. Increasing his speed anymore wasn't possible as it took enough concentration to keep up as is. He'd keep engaging but not get deadlocked, time to learn how his father fought.

"If you aren't coming here Mr. Fall, I'll come to you!" Declan called out as he ran towards him. Jaune grimaced as he sidestepped the axe and swung his blades back. This time, when they clashed he immediately disengaged and instead swung back again. He continued this pattern for an unknown amount of time, stabbing, slicing, slashing, dodging, jumping and blocking; trying to find a gap in the man's defense while not being overwhelmed by his powerful swings. What annoyed Jaune was that throughout the entire exchange he could feel HIS aura depleting from the force of the man's blows. Having enough of it he jumped back before deciding that he was done playing fair.

"Alright Declan, I'm done playing around" Jaune focused his semblance on his feet and did something nobody expected. He kicked the snow. That the snow hurtled itself at shotgun speeds did not escape anyone's notice. Declan jumped to the side but was left off balance as he landed due to some of the snow clipping his legs. Seizing the opportunity Jaune focused his semblance over his body and rocketed at the man. He threw the sword in his left hand at Declan's sternum, forcing the man to dodge and upset his balance more. Gripping his remaining sword in both hands he let out a powerful horizontal swing at Declan while changing the focus of his semblance to his hands to increase the speed of his swing.

Declan's axe made contact with the sword, and then went flying alongside Jaune's remaining blade.

Jaune quickly tackled the man onto the ground and straddled him. Before Declan could resist he took his knives out of his pockets and held them against his neck.

"Yield" Jaune commanded. He only just noticed now how tired he was. Maintaining his semblance for that long was never easy. The fight was relaxing, Winter usually had an appointment come up then beat his ass down during the session. This time, he had time to enjoy a challenge. More importantly, he beat a hunter, even if he was apparently retired like he'd heard from Cynthia. Did he cheat? Yeah. Was he also limited? Also true, his true semblance would have let him shred Declan way earlier into the fight.

Wait a minute. Did his father use his semblance? Did he even have one?

"Alright, you win…It was nice seeing you Jaune. I…am genuinely happy to see you doing well. I also forgive you." Declan replied quietly.

"This doesn't change anything" Jaune responded as he helped Declan up. "I'm my own person now and don't want to be associated with the Arc's. Maybe one day I'll feel comfortable with the world knowing, but not right now. Can you keep it to yourself?"

"Heh. I've kept it to myself for months and told the rest of the family to do the same. I'll let you talk with us again when you're more comfortable" Declan gave him a pat on the shoulder as he said this. "Now, I think you finace is more than a bit displeased with you leaving her to fight me…good luck with that".

Shit. True enough Weiss was storming over with displeasure visible on her face. Interestingly enough, so was Cynthia.

"You…didn't tell Cynthia you wanted to fight did you?" Jaune asked.

"I knew I forgot something" Declan deadpanned.

* * *

 _2 hours later_

Weiss yawned as the armored limo pulled up in front of Jaune's apartment building. She looked to her right to see her fiancé fast asleep in the back of the car. After the fight with Declan he'd explained his heritage to her father and sister in private. Although surprised, neither had any objections to their engagement continuing. On the contrary, they decided that an Arc and a Schnee getting engaged was bigger news and would announce it within the month.

Jaune looked as if he'd swallowed something sour but made no objections. He was probably worried about the commotion he'd already caused by fighting his father.

That was a side of Jaune she'd never seen before. His training sessions with Winter were always private so she never got to cheer him on. He'd battled a retired hunter and won! She knew he was strong but this was absurd. Why did he continue to attend Haze Academy? Was it for her? She'd ask him some other time.

"Psst, Jaune. Wake up!" she whispered quietly.

"mmm, hrggg" he mumbled unintelligently as he woke up. He slowly glanced around till his eyes landed on hers and he smiled. He reached out and pulled her close before placing his lips on hers. Her eyes fluttered shut as she gave in and embraced his warmth. Sooner than she would have liked, he ended the kiss and pulled away.

"Jaune?" she asked.

"Happy new year's Weiss" he responded and placed a kiss on her forehead. She watched as Jaune left the car and walked up the stairs to his apartment. She sighed in happiness as she closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat. As the car started down the road her scroll went off and she saw that it was Winter calling.

"Did you already drop Jaune off?" her sister asked frantically.

"Yes indeed. Why-" Weiss never finished her question as an explosion went off in the distance. She whipped her head around and saw the windows to Jaune's apartment shattered and wreathed in flames. No. The entire floor of the building was flaming and shattered debris was falling on the ground.

As her driver sped up to get away from the scene Weiss watched in horror as additional explosions rocked the building on all floors. Unable to take the punishment the entire building plummeted to the ground in a mix of steel, ash and flame.

Among all the noise one could almost hear Weiss screaming out for Jaune.


	8. Chapter 8 - Revival

**AN: Yeah this came out significantly later than I attended. Between grad school issues, traveling in 5 countries in a month and a half alongside job searching I didn't really have time to keep up with my intended publishing schedule. Regardless I have this chapter done and the next one nearly done so look forward to more consistent updates :D I hope you all enjoy and please leave a review so that I can enjoy reading your comments!**

Chapter 8 - Revival

Year 13x10 NRE

If there was one thing Jaune never invested in it was teenage culture. Training with Cinder would often take up most of his days so he'd always considered others his age far beneath him. That Cinder emphasized his need to grow into an intellectual further created a greater disconnect between him and his peers. This disconnect encroached onto his lifestyle and even his vocabulary. Aside from expletives he wouldn't communicate using slang that others his age would. This one time however Jaune would make an exception. He made this exception due to there being no other word to describe the feeling of being hurtled outside his apartment window due to the concussive force of numerous bombs apparently planted in his apartment, the adjacent hallways and all over the rest of his apartment building.

He was _so fucking salty_.

Sure his new year's day had several bumps in it but it was going so well! He'd gotten closer to Weiss, had his first kiss (that was fucking awesome), managed to beat his Dad and managed to reveal his arc heritage to Winter and Walden without any issues. All of these positives somehow managed to make him forget the whole reason that General Ironwood escorted him to the Schnee estate in the first place was due rumors of a threat to his life.

"JAUNE" he somehow heard a voice cry out through all the cacophony. Was that Weiss? Shit she was going to be livid. Jaune grit his teeth as he glanced around for something to help him stop his fall. It proved challenging as the biting winds made his eyes tear up. He noticed that he was close enough to the adjacent apartment building that he just might be able to crash through one of the windows. Attempting to angle his body in the air at his velocity was challenging but it was with grim satisfaction that Jaune smiled as he realized he'd be able to thread himself through the window to safety. He was incredibly thankful that he'd had just enough aura left to propel himself out of his apartment and redirect some of the flames otherwise he'd already be dead.

Wait a minute. He was out of aura. Flying at terminal velocity. Through a window. As he the glass shattered he couldn't help but notice two things. The first was the family huddled in a corner and an abandoned birthday cake with candles. Exploding buildings must have killed the party mood. The second thing was the resounding crack his arm and skull made as he landed. A scream wrenched itself out of his mouth before all he recognized was ringing in his ears and the familiar sensation of passing out. Jaune had one, murderous thought as darkness took him.

Someone is going to die for this.

* * *

 _Two weeks later_

Cinder would be the first person to acknowledge that her anger could consumer her at times. Because of this she had gone to great lengths to increase her patience. She'd grown from an impatient youth to a woman who could calmly and analytically respond to a myriad of situations. Even the unexpected events in her life such as coming across young Jaune were handled with cold and methodical care. While she could be brought to a simmering anger and distaste it had been a long time since she'd experienced rage.

The sight of her apprentice in his now two week long coma brought her incredibly close to leveling everything around herself and simply whisking the boy away to her mistress. While she had no doubt that he could be taken care of by Salem it would cause too many problems. The main problem being the location in which he was housed. Walden Schnee felt terrified of Jaune dying enough that he'd used his considerable influence to have him moved. This resulted in her son being brought to the specialist infirmary at Atlas Military Headquarters.

"Wake up dear boy" Cinder murmured as she ran the back of her hand along his forehead. The highly technical infirmary and his pale skin created an image of malady that didn't fit him. Her son was strong, sociopathic, energetic and obedient. This state of weakness disturbed her all the more as the doctors couldn't find a cause behind the coma. They'd stated that Jaune's skull and arm had cracked but recovered perfectly as soon as his aura started to regenerate. For all intents and purposes there wasn't anything wrong with him. This led them to believe that it may have been a mental trauma alongside the aura exhaustion causing his health issues.

"Um Miss Fall are you okay?" a small voice startled her out of her ruminations. Cinder hadn't realized that the door behind her had opened. Turning around she saw Weiss Schnee walking in to see Jaune. Her future daughter-in-law was another interesting one. These past two weeks, as soon as Haze let out for the day she'd rush to the hospital and spend hours either cuddling Jaune or holding his hand as she sat beside him. After spending hours in her company she came to one conclusion.

 _"_ _Thank Oum above that Jaune attracted someone both influential AND intelligent_ ". While less mature than Jaune she was incredibly bright and had potential that she might be able to use. That Weiss was absolutely smitten with her son was merely the icing on a very, very large cake.

"I'm doing as well as can be expected Weiss" Cinder responded with a smile. Honestly. Her adopted son was in a coma, did she think she'd be in a chipper mood?

"Ah, um sorry!" Weiss apologized awkwardly. Cinder watched as the girls eyes shifted to Jaune. What she enjoyed about these interactions was how Weiss' eyes cycled through emotions. Sadness, despair and...hate. That was certainly an emotion she'd seen all over Atlas recently. If there was one thing that Cinder underestimated it was Jaune's popularity among the citizens.

As knowledge of his heritage spread it painted a fairytale across all of Atlas and possibly other parts of Remnant. A young boy both literally and figuratively scarred by Grimm goes on a journey to become stronger and protect others. The young boy achieves his strength with the aid of a mentor, becomes a motivated student, captures the heart of a princess and is tragically left comatose from an unknown enemy.

That Jaune had created a modern fairytale through his actions was sinfully ironic. Walden and Ironwood had used it to whip the kingdom into unity and had a massive influx of people both signing up for the military and sending in tips on Jaune's assaulters.

"When Jaune wakes up do have him call me Weiss, I unfortunately must head back to Haven. A week off to visit Jaune was plenty for now" Cinder stated sighing in annoyance. She'd rather be here hunting down those who would dare harm him but would have to settle for having her informants do digging. Once their identities came to light...she would simply let Jaune deal with them. Two weeks of no training and listlessness would no doubt leave him quite frustrated.

If he happened to vent that frustration out in a violent rage? All the better as long as he wasn't caught.

"I will, thank you mom" Weiss answered before freezing.

"Mom? Well I suppose I will be one day" Cinder commented amused with the heiress' mortified expression. She stretched her arms out inviting Weiss for a hug.

The immediate glomp and sobbing into her chest left Cinder internally annoyed even as she hugged Weiss back and comforted her.

 _"Looks like my departure will have to wait a bit"_ she thought morosely.

* * *

 _Unknown time later_

Jaune wished he knew where he was. He also wished he could open his eyes but every time he tried they flared up in pain. He was vaguely aware of the sensation of lying down and the stiffness of his muscles.

"What happened?" he whispered aloud. Why was his voice scratchy as hell? He tried to get a feel of his aura and instantly let out a sigh of relief at feeling its warm presence within him. Deciding he can't just lay there forever he started to slowly move his muscles and warm them up. Gradually opening his eyes through the ache instantly realized where he was.

A hospital, just great. The scumbags who landed him here were going to wish he died.

He was thankful that it was night and that the lights were off. If there was any more light than the shattered moon filtering through the window Jaune was sure he'd go blind.

 _"Guess I'll go see who's around_ " Jaune thought to himself. Swinging his body off the bed he stood up and took a step forward.

He found his legs instantly giving out and fell forwards flat on his face.

"Motherfucker why?!" Jaune shouted clutching his nose and squirming on the ground. He froze as the lights went on, an alarm went off and the door to his room slammed open. He gazed astonished as Winter burst in to the room and screamed him to freeze as she trained her weapon on him.

"Oh…you're awake" Winter said. He was then caught off guard as she rushed him and he found himself embracing a crying woman minutes after waking up.

"I am…now why are you crying?" Jaune asked. What was happening? Admittedly being unconscious for a little while after the whole explosion was scary but he was alive wasn't he? Feeling more than a little uncomfortable he couldn't help but sigh in relief when she finally let go. His relief went right out the window as she adopted a serious expression and placed her hands on his shoulders as if to steady him.

"Jaune…you've been in a coma for a month and two days now" Winter explained slowly.

A month. Coma. A month of no work. No improvement. No training. AN ENTIRE MONTH GONE. What was he going to do? All his stuff was gone, he had no money, did Cinder know? Was she worried? Was Weiss-

"Let me talk to Mr. Fall specialist Schnee…though you should help him back to bed first" an amused voice interrupted his thoughts. Jaune's gaze traveled back to his door to see General Ironwood sporting an expression that was an interesting mix of amused and somber. Jaune's face turned beet red as Winter had to physically help him stand up and shuffle back to his bed. After getting settled he watched cautiously as Winter and Ironwood pulled up chairs alongside his bed.

"All right Jaune I'm sure you have questions but let me explain some things that have happened before you ask anything okay? You can ask me any remaining questions after okay?" Ironwood requested with a gentle expression on his face.

"…Alright, that would help a lot actually" he replied. He laid back and listened. Listened to how his story so far had made him a legend, how his coma helped Atlas grow, how they still haven't caught the ones responsible, how all his friends were doing and how even now they had no clue why he was under for so long.

"Now you don't have to worry about your school work Jaune. You're far enough ahead that you've been given exemptions for everything you missed. Do you have any more questions?"

"…I have two" Jaune hesitantly posed. "How long till I can walk again and did my mom visit?" he felt like a child asking the last one. He wouldn't be surprised if she didn't but he could be hopeful.

"I'm no doctor but you should honestly be back to normal in a day. Aura keeps your body from atrophy but you still haven't moved much in a month so your body is a quite stiff and rusty. I'll let Winter tell you about your mom" for some reason the general grimaced as he said it. Turning to his future sister-in-law he was caught off guard at the healthy flush to her cheeks.

What on Remnant happened?

"So your mom did come up for about a week." that was a long time to be away from her mysterious projects. Jaune had to hold his tears inside and resolved to call her as soon as possible. "The first day she came in however…um…Weiss was…cuddling with you in bed".

Jaune was tempted to see if he couldn't put himself back in his coma. What on earth possessed Weiss to get that forward with his unconscious body?!

"I…take it my mom didn't react well?" he hesitantly asked.

Winter grimaced "actually she encouraged Weiss to 'get her some grandchildren' and walked right out".

 _"_ _MOM WHY?"_ it took every single ounce of his willpower to not call his mom and demand an explanation.

"Anyways I ran into your mom and then Weiss came chasing her out and we cleared that up. We spent the rest of the week just getting to know each other in your room, well mostly your mom and Weiss actually. Then she realized you lost everything so Weiss dragged your mother clothes shopping with her for you".

At this point Jaune was wondering if his aura would heal him fast enough if he tried biting off his tongue to commit suicide.

"…which brings me to our next point. Cinder and my dad talked and they decided you will be moving in with us".

"Bweh?" Jaune asked dumbly.

"You. Live. With. Us." Winter responded in a very slow sarcastic voice.

"So…I'm gone for a month and everything is taken care of when I get back? You guys didn't waste time". He couldn't deny being impressed. Aside from his body getting back to normal seemingly everything was taken care of.

Admittedly losing his second home and his belongings did suck. A lot. He'd get over it though.

Right after he killed the bastards who dared to threaten him.

"How does this sound, instead of staying here we can just send you with Winter to your new home. A doctor can check on you in the morning if that appeals to you Jaune?" was General Ironwood proposing to break medical rules and practice? He simply stared dumbfounded before nodding along fervently

He's already spent a month here apparently; he was NOT going to be spending any more time.

"Oh…could you NOT tell Weiss I'm coming? I think a surprise would be fun" Jaune smiled at their deadpan stares. "Oh come on do it for the guy who was down for a month".

"If she gets mad you take full responsibility alright?" Winter stated even as she sighed in acceptance.

"Deal…also let's stop somewhere on the way back and get me a new scroll. I can't not call my mom tonight after all!" Jaune smiled happily.

* * *

"Where on earth is Winter?" Weiss murmured to herself. She was lying on Jaune's bed in his new room. Dressed in her light blue nightgown she stuck out visibly in a room that was painted entirely white and decorated with dark mahogany furniture. Despite only having been in his room twice she remembered what he would like and made sure it was perfect. Her father and sister had objected the sparse job initially but Cinder's approval of the room had silenced all protests.

Weiss flushed lightly at the memory of calling her mom and breaking down in her arms. The closest mother figure she'd had in her life was Winter. The comfort and warmth that Cinder brought however was…enticing.

The woman was also clearly a huge influence on Jaune. In the one week of interacting with her she saw where Jaune acquired a lot of his mannerisms. The intelligent way of communication, the confidence and even the humor she displayed all mirrored Jaune perfectly.

That they were both attractive was a coincidence she just found amusing. Whereas Jaune had a friendly charming air about him Cinder had practically felt like royalty incarnate.

Weiss grimaced as she'd particularly felt the royal treatment lately. The pedestal between her and others her age had only gotten larger after Jaune's backstory had hit the tabloids. Other students gazed at her with looks of awe and pity. As if she was a princess above their level who deserved all the honor and pity they could give her.

They weren't wrong about her being above them but the reactions of the students had been absurd. Even the students her and Jaune had spent most of their time with now acted similar to a protection detail around her. They were always checking every room and hall before she entered. In the hallways they made a circle around her and others would step out of the way for fear of angering them.

Winter, being as overprotective as she is, had approved and even commended the students!

She let out a sigh at the death of a normal school life.

"Weiss are you in there?" oh so Winter was back!

"Come in Winter! The doors unlocked" she shouted back. While it was unlikely that today was the day he woke up she'd love for it to happen.

"Ummm, I'm carrying something…rather heavy…would you get the door?" Winter responded haltingly. Curious as to what on earth her sister couldn't lift she swung off the bed and walked to the door. Without hesitation she swung the door open to see her sister.

"Hey Weiss, how've you been?" Jaune asked.

"Oh I'm fine how are youuuuuuu-JAUNE!" she exclaimed as she jumped back in surprise. What was Jaune doing here? When did he wake up? Why was he using "crutches?" she asked aloud. Jaune's frown as he stared at her made her slightly uncomfortable.

"Well I was apparently out for over a month, I only need them for today and maybe tomorrow I think?" oh well that was good. Shaking her head at her own thoughts she walked up to Jaune and wrapped her arms around him.

Jaune was back.

"Hey uh Weiss…I don't mind or anything but could I get to my bed first? I can't really hug back with crutches" he stated. Moving to the side she watched as Jaune hobbled his way to the bed. To see him cringe and grimace as he took each slow step was different. Even in the one instance in which Jaune had terrified her he was strong. To see him suffering as he struggled to walk was…painful.

 _"_ _I want to help but…I know he's too prideful to ask. If there's anything Jaune doesn't want it's to be seen as weak"_ Weiss thought. When he finally managed to reach the bed she watched amused as he threw the crutches on the ground and simply laid down.

"Is this bed made of angel feathers? Weiss' hair? It's sooooo soft" Jaune moaned as he simply lay spread eagle on the bed.

"M-my hair? Did you just compare my hair to angel feathers?" while flattering it was certainly an odd comparison.

"Well yeah. You're my snow angel after all" he shot back.

Weiss would categorically decline to her dying breath the ferocious blush that rose to her face at the nickname that he'd seemingly come up with on the spot. Weiss Schnee was not that easy! She was regal, elegant, mature…and a sucker for her fiancé.

They heard a coughing from the doorway and both all of a sudden remembered that Winter was still there.

"I'm…going to leave you two to catch up. Goodnight Weiss, Jaune" with that they watched Winter slam the door shut and heard her speed off down the hallway.

"Well that was funny. Her expression probably matched mine when she told me that you apparently decided to cuddle my comatose body" and she had just gotten her blush under control too!

 _"_ _Okay Weiss you can do this. Just tell him that you missed him and wanted to be close to him"_ unfortunately thinking about saying something and actually vocalizing it were leagues apart. "I couldn't help it!" she blurted instead.

Well that was a solid delivery.

Jaune merely raised an eyebrow. How does a crippled male teenager still look attractive while just raising an eyebrow? Weiss would never understand.

"Then you can 'not help it' while I'm awake too right?" he asked with a smirk. He stretched his arms out as if asking for a hug "plenty of room right here".

"Challenge accepted!" Weiss responded even as she gave him a smirk right back. As she hopped onto the bed and let herself be pulled into his embrace she couldn't deny that she was happy that he was back. As she wrapped her arms around his torso she pressed her face onto his chest.

"Weiss…are you crying?" was she crying? Reaching up to her face

"…I missed you" she mumbled while hiding her face under his neck. "You can't do that to me again Jaune. I-I love you".

"I…yeah I think I'll pass on another coma" he replied with a chuckle. It didn't escape her notice that he didn't say he loved her back. Maybe he was too nervous or hadn't cemented his feelings yet? She'd let it go since she was just happy he was back.

A thought occurred to her that she simply had to voice.

She tilted her head up to look him in the eyes. "Can I stay here tonight? N-not as in having…you know sex" she amended at the blush that overcame HIS face this time. Apparently even Jaune could get embarrassed talking about sex. "I just don't want to wake up and think this was all a dream, that you're back here. With me" Just the thought of Jaune being gone again, being hurt again with no promise of recovery almost broke her heart.

"You should be smiling" her turmoil must have shown on her face. Before she could address it she felt his arms tighten around her and his lips press against hers. "I'm not going anywhere…so how do I hit the lights since I can't get up?"

"From suave to cripple in a second" Weiss chuckled. She clapped her hands together three times and the room was covered in darkness.

"This cripple hasn't had enough kisses yet, I missed a whole month's worth"

 _"_ _Right back to suave with this one…well two can play that game"_ Weiss thought gleefully. "I guess I'll have to help you catch up" she breathed against his lips.

"That you will"

* * *

Compared to yesterday he felt pretty good. He'd spent the night cuddling and making out with Weiss which was amazing in its own right and waking up with her warm body pressed against his was a heavenly feeling.

Is this why adults had sex so often?

Waking her up in the morning had been a struggle but a whispered reminder that if her sister or father caught them there would be hell to pay certainly helped. Admittedly Winter would probably be mad and Walden would approve but still. Now that she was gone Jaune finally had some alone time to think about what he was going to do from here.

"First I need to talk to Cinder, everything else can wait". Pulling out his scroll he typed in her scroll ID from memory. It may have been five in the morning but he knew Cinder would still be up at this hour.

"When I saw a video call from an unknown number I was genuinely concerned as to how someone acquired my scroll ID. Now it makes sense. It's pleasant to see you awake again Jaune" she stated. It felt weird. From his perspective he'd talked with her a mere two days ago.

"Nice to see you mom! I heard you visited and met Weiss. Thanks for that by the way. I like my new room and will hopefully like my new clothes" he commented with a chuckle.

"Yes Weiss was surprisingly pleasant to chat with. Did you know she actually called me mom? You've done an exemplary job on making a favorable impression on your fiancée. I've actually got some news to celebrate your recovery if you'd like to hear it?" Cinder asking him for something? Not just telling him was different.

"Sure I'll bite, what's up mom?" considering he's spent a month comatose whatever the news was must have been big to be the first thing brought up.

"A few days ago I found out who put you in your coma. I've kept the info under wraps in case you wanted to...deal with it personally".

Never let it be said Cinder gave bad gifts.

"I'm going to need to get used to moving again first but I'll make full use of your...present mom. Thank you very, very much" Jaune was aware that the smile he gave Cinder had more than just a little bloodlust. Fortunately his mom just rolled her eyes in amusement before smiling at him.

"There is a second gift actually. Now that I've got your new scroll ID I'm sending you details of a package that I've stored at one of the warehouses in Atlas. Do be sure to pick it up prior to making use of your first gift." Another gift, huh well that was awfully considerate of his Cinder. She must have really missed him. The thought filled Jaune with warmth.

"I'll be sure to do that mom. Thanks again. I'll talk to you later alright?"

"I will talk with you later Jaune. One last thing. Let the Schnee's know that you won't be around during the summer. The two of us will be traveling. It's about time I take a hand on your training again…also do make sure to avoid any more serious injuries. The sight of you comatose was…unpleasant". With that Cinder ended the call.

Jaune had a smile stretching across his face. She had flat out said she was concerned for him! Also two months of traveling and training with Cinder? He'd miss Atlas some but he couldn't wait. Glancing at the time on his scroll he figured that it was time to start getting used to moving.

Holding onto the bed he placed both legs on the ground. As he stood the pain and lack of balance threatened to topple him instantly but he held on. He grit his teeth stretched his right leg out and took a step forward.

Jaune didn't fall.

The satisfied youth moved his left leg and took another step forward. Still no issue. The soreness was still there however so he decided now would be a good time to practice with his aura. Closing his eyes he brought his aura to the surface. He let out a sigh of pleasure as his soreness ebbed away as he concentrated it into his legs. Taking another step he grinned. It still felt odd but he wasn't in pain anymore.

Maybe he should try out his semblance? What's the worst that could happen? Deciding to try it Jaune walked over to his window and perched himself on the window sill.

"Let's see I could probably get 20-25 feet before with a semblance enhanced jump…right by that snowdrift. If I can get that back then I should be good. If I can't…well I got plenty of snow to catch me." Channeling his aura to his legs to empower them and then the rest over his body to move himself Jaune took a deep breath to focus. His eyes sharpened and he launched himself forward. 5 feet. 10 feet. 20 feet. 40 feet. 60 feet.

As he flew through the air he realized he had no clue how far he'd end up flying at this rate which at his speed was deadly. In his panic Jaune activated his semblance and elected to try something new. He treated his body as the 'object' of his semblance and attempted to decelerate his speed for a change. To his joy he found it working as he started to descend at a gradual pace as he lost momentum. Landing softly on the ground he turned back to see the house just over an estimated 150 feet away.

"…That's new". Deciding to see if anything had affected his aura he opened his scroll to see his biological readout. His aura had ever so slightly grown while comatose by recovering from the trauma but not enough to explain this sudden boost of power. "I wonder if…Let's try it". Jaune scooped up two handfuls of snow to test his theory. He aimed away from the manor and crushed the first scoop into multiple pieces. Taking aim he used his semblance to send them flying…at sniper speeds.

Multiple objects at sniper speeds? He could only push the limits of the shotgun speed before! Feeling excited Jaune decided to test his theory on the other handful of snow. He focused on the globe of snow and directed his semblance tried to "feel" with his aura. The aura control exercises were the only tasks he could never accomplish for Cinder. She'd always commented on how much of his aura was wasted using his semblance. As he felt a tug he immediately followed through and almost dropped the lump from what he could feel.

Every snowflake. Thousands in one small sized ball. He could feel it all. Was this what Cinder felt when she manipulated her flames?

"This…this is amazing" he breathed. Jaune manipulated the snowflakes and watched with glee as he was able to take the round ball of snow and create a ring of snow. The fine control to move objects so precisely, let alone so many was an ability he lacked before.

Recalling some notes from the readings he did in Walden's office he wondered if it was possible to make the snow ice over. All he had to do was slow down the molecules and pack them together in order to increase the density if what he read was correct…but he couldn't feel molecules…just what they constructed. Focusing in on the snowflakes he moved them closer and closer. He could still tell it was snow so he just winged it.

Jaune focused on the creation as a whole and used his semblance as if he was slowing it down. It took a solid ten minutes of sweating and focus but as he looked at the clear ring of ice Jaune was ecstatic at figuring out what had changed.

His ability to manipulate and control his aura had increased. This level of control would have taken him at least three years to get to.

"Did the injuries somehow kick start my aura development?" to a degree it made sense. His aura overcompensating for the injuries could have easily drained enough energy to keep him comatose. Perhaps it was due to how similar the injury was to the first time he was injured by a beowulf almost a decade ago. Ironwood did say the doctor's theorized that it was mental shock keeping him under. He'd have to get Cinder's input. Her experience with aura far outstripped his and she'd certainly be able to help him.

One final experiment. He focused on bringing as much aura as possible to the forefront of his body. Being able to feel his soul singing through his body, in every capillary was exhilarating.

Jaune began to run. Constantly cycling his aura inside his veins he could feel all the rust on his body melting off his like butter on a hot knife. He'd never felt so good running, never felt so fast.

He felt invincible.

"HOW ON REMNANT ARE YOU MOVING?" he turned his head to see Winter looking at him with more than a little shock on her features. He could answer honestly or he could answer in a cheeky manner.

"I'm just awesome".

There's never a reason to NOT be cheeky.


	9. Chapter 9 - Bloody Therapy

**AN: Well here's the newest chapter late as per usual :D**

Chapter 9 - Bloody Therapy

Year 13X10 NRE

"No. I'll agree to wear something discreet but I would like to walk around the city by myself for a little bit. I know you're worried but I'm not going to die just by walking outside" Jaune argued exasperated. He'd been spending damn near the entire walk to the limo arguing with Weiss.

It had been a week since he'd recovered from his injury and despite walking around, dominating class spars and generally just being a normal individual everyone treated him as if he was fragile. There were three things in particular that drove him up the wall.

The first were the additional guards now posted near Schnee manor. The guards themselves were easy going individuals and were generally enjoyable to be around. That they'd been expressly instructed by Winter to watch his windows and prevent him from leaving the manor without her approval was obnoxious. How the hell was he supposed to get his revenge or pick up Cinder's package if he was constantly tracked?

The second thing he absolutely despised was something he had never anticipated. Fans. Fucking. Fans. He held a grudge against Walden that would last to hell and back for spreading his background just for some solid PR. Upon arriving back on campus he was nearly swarmed by students trying to get a closer look at him. Fortunately there were some sensible students who helped deter them alongside Weiss threatening legal action.

Nobody wanted to fight a legal battle with a Schnee. Nobody.

The final thing that pissed him off to hell and back were _the fucking stares_. It didn't matter if it was in the limo being driven to campus or even just walking around. Apparently once a person saw him they lost the physical capability of looking away! He was raised as an assassin damn it. Shadows, night and blood did not result in hundreds of awestruck glances. That there were several women who practically undressed him with their eyes only fueled his mortification.

"How about this Weiss, I'll look after him for you. Plus this way you guys can have some time off from each other. Oum knows I see you two sneaking enough kisses in the back of my class" turning around he saw Cynthia walking towards them. He felt his face flush at her words but he wouldn't take it lying down.

"Now Cynthia, you shouldn't be jealous of Weiss actually having someone to make out with." Boom. His sister, although beautiful, frightened most men in Atlas due to being a woman who could soundly beat them into the dirt. Once it was let out that they were related? Well a woman on a pedestal was rarely easy to approach.

Now that he thought about it, Walden had managed to fuck both of them over. Perhaps some misdirection later could work brilliantly.

"Wow I give you an out and that's how you respond? Perhaps I should just make sure you make it to the limo then?" Cynthia responded.

"Actually Cynthia, could you go with Jaune? While I care for his safety I don't want him feeling caged up and going stir crazy…well more stir crazy." Weiss caved in as soon as Cynthia hopped on board. She didn't want him caged up but still wanted an escort for him apparently.

He would never understand women.

"…Alright Weiss just for you I'll keep little Jauney company" even as he attempted to protest the nickname she reached over and ruffled his hair.

"Thanks Sis, good thing I have a spare change of clothes in my locker. We're gonna have to go back and grab it" he commented as he started walking away at a rapid pace. Hopefully they wouldn't wonder why he had spare clothes in the first place.

"WERE YOU PLANNING TO RUN OFF ANYWAYS?" Weiss shouted horrified behind him.

Jaune's fast walk became a full on sprint.

* * *

It had been awhile since Jaune felt like a sketchy bum. Dressed in black jeans with a grey hoodie with the hood up he made for a figure that wasn't really the most appealing to look at.

Or was it the fact that he was staring straight at the ground so that others didn't see his face? Meh he'd think about it later.

As he walked on the sidewalk he couldn't help but feel at ease walking unseen. The towering skyscrapers, the throngs of people, the noise of vehicles commuting created an environment he enjoyed being lost in. It's would be all too easy to be distracted by his thoughts at the moment however as he had something to take care of.

Right now his biggest project was ditching Cynthia.

He understood that she was watching him because of her protectiveness and her promise to Weiss but he couldn't deny it was frustrating being coddled this much. She was trailing a good twenty feet behind him so that she drew attention to her and more importantly away from him. Who would notice a youth in a hoodie when a celebrity is nearby after all.

Jaune came up with what he considered a brilliant idea. He smiled as he saw that they'd reached the train station. Giving a cursory glance at the departure schedule he noticed that his particular train would be leaving in two minutes.

Best to hurry this up then.

"OH MY OUM IS THAT CYNTHIA ARC?!" he screamed as he whipped around and pointed at her. As people followed his finger they all noticed the celebrity in their presence and had acted as all fans do. They ran up to her for autographs and questions.

Cynthia's livid/horrified expression brought him no small amount of amusement as he used the confusion to blend back into the crowd. Instead of pushing away from the mob which would have given up his position he let himself be pushed gradually out of the crowd and to the side entrance.

"She's going to be pissed" Jaune mused to himself. Walking up to the gates he swiped his scroll for the automatic ticket purchase and boarded the train. As he gazed at the ground he realized he'd need something for his face later.

What was that movie he watched with Weiss? The Scourge?

* * *

 _2 hours later_

Cynthia had worried every day about Jaune never waking back up again. She'd acted strong and told her family that he would be fine but the confidence in her words was always lacking. After he woke up she'd broken all professionalism and tackled him when he came back to class. It was her sisterly affection that motivated her to follow him for Weiss.

That she had lost him soon after saying she would watch him was a problem.

"Weiss is going to kill me" Cynthia bemoaned. She was currently scouting the train station out to see if she could find her wayward little brother. While she had a feeling that he'd try to escape at some point she was confident in her skills enough that she'd be able to catch the little bastard if he ran.

Instead of running however he set a mob on her and hid. She wasn't even able to ask others to help find him since that would defeat the whole purpose of him traveling incognito. Oum knows he didn't need another assassination attempt this early.

It was a brilliant move on his end considering that she still couldn't find him hours later.

The first half an hour Cynthia had searched the station only to come up with nothing. From there she had bounced from station to station trying to find even a glimpse of his grey hoodie. Now that she was back at square one a thought occurred.

"...what if he changed his clothes?" Jaune had already kept incognito clothes in his school locker to sneak out. If, after getting away, he'd changed clothing there would be no way to find one person in a city of almost eight million. With the eyes of the dead and she pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

"Cynthia? It's rare to be receiving a call from you in the evening" James Ironwood's voice came through…happy? "I hear you're watching over young Jaune. How is he doing?"

"...if I could find him I'd tell you" Cynthia stated after a lengthy pause. The only sound she could hear from Ironwood was the sound of nothing. Silent as the grave.

"This one person seems to just make my life rife with logistical nightmares" he sighed. "I'm alerting every soldier in Atlas to detain him if spotted and to report any tips. Reason for detainment being listed as: because his fiancée is going to be mad if she finds out he booked it. I'll also have someone search for every time a scroll purchase is made by the name of Jaune Fall."

Cynthia blinked at the reasoning provided. Hearing her scroll go off she glanced down and saw with abject horror that the general wasn't kidding. What's more there was a five-hundred lien reward for finding him.

James Ironwood had casually just created a competition to find Jaune. The competitors? Every soldier in Atlas.

Oum have mercy

* * *

Jaune was all smiles as he finally picked up his present. Upon arriving at the warehouse he'd checked in, made some friendly conversation with the clerk and was now relaxing at small coffee shop as he opened up his present.

The coffee shop was a small one with walls of dark brown and soft jazz floating through the air. Upon entering he'd taken seat a small booth in the corner. Looking at the package it was a cardboard box just larger than his forearm but significantly wider. Drawing out the opening he gasped when he finally saw the gift.

Two hunting knives. Unlike his previous knives they had black grips and the silver blades were curved inwards toward the end, almost like talons. These weren't meant for simply cutting. They were meant for slicing and gouging, for violence.

They were also surprisingly heavy.

"How do such small knives weigh so much?" he mused. The reasoning for her gift was not lost on him. He'd ended up losing the knives from his father and Cinder in the explosion. All that had remained were molten bits of slag covered debris as far as he was aware. It was quite thoughtful of his mom to buy them.

So lost in his thoughts he almost didn't notice the two small buttons on each knife. Sliding his thumb alongside one of the knives he watched as the bottom of the knife popped out revealing a container.

The container was filled to the brim with small lead pellets. It didn't take him long to realize that it was so he could always have some sort of lethal ammunition for his semblance.

It also explained why the knives were somewhat weighty. While inside the weight would help him cut easier and when outside he could have ranged projectiles. Jaune placed the knives in his jeans and quickly checked his jacket. His poor sister was unaware that it was a reversible hoodie and all had needed to do was turn it inside out and boom. Gray jacket off, black jacket on. Sipping the coffee he'd bought he pondered what his next move would be.

"According to Cinder's information they won't be at their base for another few hours at least. I guess I'll just relax here for a while" content to enjoy his coffee in peace Jaune leaned back against his booth and let out a sigh of contentment as he closed his eyes.

Not a minute later heard footsteps approach his booth and then the words "excuse me Mr. Fall we need you time with us". Opening his eyes he saw two Atlas soldiers standing next to his table.

Well there went his peace and coffee.

"Now why are two soldiers coming to pick me up in a coffee shop? Aside from ditching my sister I don't believe I've done anything to warrant an arrest" yet, he added mentally.

"We have a warrant for your detainment sir" detainment? One of the soldiers presented him a scroll and glancing at it Jaune felt tempted to shove one of his new knives through it. A city wide detainment order? What. The. Fuck.

Nope. Jaune was all for keeping cover but this was some grade A abuse of power. It was straight up bullshit.

Letting none of his thoughts show Jaune let out a sigh. "Sure I'll come along" he responded in a forlorn tone. As he walked in front of the soldiers he caught them casting him looks of pity. Good, he could work with that. Opening the front door he quickly cast his eyes around surveying the various buildings and areas with a high concentration of people.

The soldiers stepped behind him while making light conversation. Before the soldiers could react Jaune activated his semblance and rocketed up vertically. As his momentum started to slow he kicked off the side of the building. Moving from building to building for a minute he smiled as he soared through the air. Jaune couldn't help but sigh in relief as he finally saw a thick crowd. He rocketed towards the crowd to blend in. Feeling himself get closer to the ground he slowed his momentum with his semblance and landed seamlessly in the crowd.

As Jaune caught the stares of the passerby's he merely adopted a casual walk while fixing his eyes on the ground. Jaune couldn't help but inwardly smile as the citizens simply assumed he was "one of those weird hunters" and went about their own business. If he was a criminal or a mass murderer these sheep would be extinct.

No wonder Cinder was so cynical about the hope of Remnant's civilization.

"That's him!" a familiar voice cried out. Lazily glancing to his right Jaune's eyes went comically wide in shock. Accompanied by two soldiers Winter was marching straight for him.

"...nope fuck this" Jaune muttered to himself. Wasting no time he shot himself away from Winter. He heard the signature sound of her glyphs and could practically feel her catching up.

"I request back up in apprehending the target. I'm broadcasting my coordinates to all Atlas personnel so make sure to be ready to intercept" Winter called into her scroll.

"ISN'T THIS EXCESSIVE?!" Jaune shouted back. "YOU DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO THIS. YOU HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT!" he could understand the ordinary Atlas soldiers chasing him. Recognition and five hundred lien wasn't a bad deal. Why in the name of all that is holy was Winter participating? Specialists don't need more than their title to survive in Atlas.

"I'm doing this because I'm bored! I'd also rather not have Weiss ranting at me for not doing my part!" Winter yelled back as she gained on him.

Huh. Well that wasn't a particularly bad reason he supposed. He'd do the same in her position. Unfortunately that didn't change the fact that he needed to get away since he wouldn't beat her in a fight.

Time to do something she'd never expect. Ever.

As he landed one Jaune planted his feet against the ground and shot himself TOWARD Winter. They were both already accelerating too quickly towards each other to change direction. He stuck his fist out and let the force of two rapid objects crashing together strike her squarely in the jaw.

He'd essentially just sucker punched his future sister-in-law.

Briefly watching Winter spiral down into the crowd was mildly amusing in its own right. Deciding against sticking around he ducked into a nearby store.

The shop had black walls and surprisingly low lights. As he walked around he realized he'd found a neat little costume store. Reversing his jacket again he glanced around for items to disguise himself.

On the far side of the wall an item caught his attention. A clown mask. The mask had a tearful expression which would have been amusing if not for the bloody decorations adorning its face.

Oh this would be lovely for tonight!

* * *

 _Four hours later_

"So-pff-y-you're telling me y-you got sucker p-punched by Jaune?" James Ironwood asked while visibly restraining the urge to laugh. Judging by Winter's eye twitch and glare he was clearly failing.

It didn't help that Cynthia had given trying and was collapsed on the floor laughing.

"It was...unexpected. Also why are you laughing Cythia? It's your fault he got away in the first place" Winter bit out. It was undeniable that being outdone by a Haze Academy student, no matter how much of a prodigy, was nothing short of humiliating. The worst part of it all being she just _knew_ he was going to give her that blasted smug grin of his later.

She'd have to step up his training with her. If she happened to be a bit rougher so be it. Bruises built character after all.

"...okay let's call it even" Cynthia said sobering up.

"I'm honestly tempted to call this hunt off" Ironwood commented with a frown. "If this keeps going on then we're going to be considered a laughing stock. This reminds me. How does a teenager know to blend in and evade as well as he does? His combat level is unheard of but within reason. This...evasion however, is not."

It was a fairly pertinent question Cynthia realized. Aside from his disappearance and somehow being found by Cinder there was nothing on how he survived the way he did. The only thing they really knew was that his training was exceptional and that he was rendered comatose briefly.

"If I may, perhaps Cinder simply taught him more than just combat? Hunting often requires blending in with ones surroundings after all" Cynthia offered.

"Blending in with scenery yes, using crowds of civilians not so much" Ironwood countered.

"According to our records he lived four years on his own before being found by Cinder. I don't imagine living alone as a child being particularly pleasant or easy. Certainly not through legal means" Winter finally stated.

The silence in the room was palpable.

"Let's end this here" Ironwood finally said after a few minutes. "The hunt can continue but we'll leave Jaune's past be for now. Oum knows he's been through enough and is still the kind, if not a pain in the ass, individual he is".

Both Cynthia and Winter sighed in relief and shared an amused smile. They both knew that Ironwood's affection for Jaune was only half the reason he didn't delve to deep.

The other half was all the paperwork that would arrive on his desk if it did.

* * *

A large brunette male with grey eyes and orange shutter shades was lounging in his office. The man was impeccably dressed in white dress pants and a form fitting black dress shirt. This man was Randall Thorn.

Randal Thorn considered himself one hell of a good smuggler. Atlas' best even.

Despite Atlas being a military state it was still a kingdom that had spoiled rich kids. In their rebellious moods many wanted to try out new drugs from other kingdoms. Even soldiers would come to his boys for some red-102 to unwind from the work day. In exchange for the drugs he'd get cash, oaths of silence and even the occasional soldier to help him out.

It was because of the help that he'd managed to get a nearly abandoned factory complex on the south side of Atlas as his base. The complex took up a square mile and consisted of one central production plant and several smaller buildings. What made it perfect were the unclimbable thirty foot high walls surrounding the entire facility.

The factory functioned in the daytime as a producer of teddy bears of all things. At night, drugs would come in by the rate load and sales would be on their way.

All until his business took a hit roughly four years ago. His chief supplier from Mistral made the piss poor decision of pissing off Sloan. Then Sloan had the infamous bitch Cinder massacre the poor bastards whole gang.

How that fucking woman got a job as a teacher despite her criminal history was beyond his comprehension. Whether she falsified false records or ate out Haven's headmistress he didn't know and he didn't care to look.

His supplies had run low and it had taken him four long years to get his supply chain and funds back to normal. When he'd seen Cinder's adopted son living in Atlas he knew he had a chance for revenge.

It had taken months of planning. But they'd seemingly done it. The younger Fall hadn't died unfortunately had ended up comatose. Then he woke up.

Randall could have killed something. All that effort and planning ultimately did nothing.

Except bring an angel of death to his home.

It had started with the security system seemingly malfunctioning. The whole gang had ended up trapped inside the factory compound as it entered lockdown sequence, their walls had become a cage. Then the power had died. It was at this point they'd all realized that something was wrong.

Randall had immediately started a video conference call on his scroll to contact everyone in the factory. He'd only started explaining about a possible Atlas raid when something surprising had happened.

One of his men's head had seemingly exploded. The gore had showered the camera lens in a filter of blood and bone. Through the camera however he could make out a hooded figure with a clown mask.

"Today you pay for your sins" the figure had said before raising a knife and stabbing towards the scroll. The connection had cut there.

Despite immediately ordering his men to find and kill the man he'd been met with nothing but failure. Failure in the form of more and more of his men dying. Sometimes they would die quickly and the scroll connection dying off. Other times they'd witness disembowelment, hanging, being punched to death and other gory messes.

He'd never been more thankful for having a trash bin to puke into in his office.

Despite the macabre sights Randall ordered his men to stay connected to the call if only to better track the monsters movements.

He slammed his fist down on his desk. Once he found them they would be the ones paying. Paying for the sin of crossing him.

* * *

"It's been sooooo long since I've had this much fun!" Jaune mused excitedly. There were many things pleasurable in life but few things had matched killing in his opinion.

Killing grimm and other animals were fine but they lacked something humans had when hunted. Pure, unadulterated fear in their eyes. He could tell they were spooked. The first one he'd killed simply with a rock through his skull. For his next kill he'd strung some braided rope around and hung. Goon B as he'd dubbed him had looked at him with such hate and fear as he'd tried to loosen his noose that he couldn't help but smile back beamingly.

His mask ruined that effect unfortunately. Oh well.

He had gone on to alternate between silent murders from range and closer up intimate encounters. By mixing in ranged assassinations he could kill multiple guards from entirely different areas of the compound and keep them guessing his location.

Not that they'd be a threat to him or anything like that. If they had an idea of where he was it would kind of kill the whole "let's kill them while they freak the fuck out" thing he had going.

After all, a monster you can't see is infinitely more terrifying than one you can.

Spotting a new target he had a fun idea. He took out his knives and shot them through the man's kneecaps. This one had a delightful scream. Quite a range in fact. As he walked up to the screaming man he decided now would a good time to experiment a bit more with his new aura control.

He started by cutting off the wrists with his knives. Safety first of course.

Crouching next to the man Jaune shoved a finger into his bleeding kneecaps. Upon activating his semblance he could feel the blood through his aura. Every vein and capillary, almost as if it was his own.

Jaune focused on directing the blood 'outside' and watched in fascination as it started flooding from the man's pores. From his legs, arms, torso and even his skull! Within a minute all of the blood had seamlessly left his body to pool on the floor and on top of his skin.

It was as if the man had bathed in a tub of red paint.

Well that was certainly different. Jaune turned the man's scroll around so that those on the other side would be able to get a solid look. He chuckled as he imagined their reactions. Noticing a bulge in the man's jacket he reached in to have a look. Though blood covered, the man had a small black lighter.

"F-FREEZE!" a voice cried out behind him. Oh one of the goons had actually managed to find him?

Glancing behind him he noticed the man dressed in a grey suit and orange tie like the rest of them. The man had a pistol trained on him though it appeared to be shaking lightly. Letting out a bored sigh he closed distance and casually kicked the man into a nearby wall.

The sound of several cracks brought a grin to his face.

"Oh my sounds like you broke something there" Jaune commented. "Let me be your good old Doctor then" he finished as he pulled out one of his now bloody knives. Before the man could waste his breath begging for mercy he simply chucked it into his throat. Watching the man's blood start to leak as he choked to death he couldn't help but have one thought.

I wonder how else I can move blood around?

* * *

Randall fell out of his chair as the last of his feeds cut off. All his men were dead. Every. Single. One.

He'd started the day with one hundred men in his compound. They had been spread out over a square mile. Not one of them had survived.

"I'm not waiting for that fucker to get to me!" he muttered furiously. Pulling out his pistol he took aim at his door, waiting on the intruder to try it. There was only one way in and sooner or later the bastard who massacred his men would have to try it.

It was a sound plan in his opinion. Unfortunately his opinion didn't particularly matter when the wall _behind_ him shattered into pieces. Randall attempted to spin around only to be met with a vicious punch to the hand holding his pistol.

He screamed as a knife followed the punch and his wrist was disconnected from his arm.

"Found you, at long last" the clown masked individual spoke.

"Y-you won't get away with this! People know me! They know I'm here!" he cried out in defiance even as he attempted to scuttle away.

"They may, but it won't matter. If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that fire cures most things" Randall could hear the maliciousness in the man's voice. Before he could comment on it he watched as the figure pulled out what appeared to be lighter. "Enjoy your time in hell".

The flames from the lighter shot to him as if they were fired from cannon. Even as Randall screamed and writhed he couldn't help but watch as the flames covered his body, the office and presumably the hallway outside.

Within minutes the entire compound would be wreathed in flames that would cause hundreds of machine explosions. An entire square mile of Atlas would be burned by the end of it. To put out the flames it would take Atlas personnel hours of flying airships to douse them and the assistance of specific hunters using their semblances to mitigate the damage.

General Ironwood would assign investigators to locate the reason for the large fire. Unfortunately all they would find were a multitude of remains charred beyond identification.

Jaune couldn't help but smile as he went back to Schnee manor. His new lighter was rather nice.


End file.
